The Return of Alex Kelly
by KellyJade
Summary: Two years after Alex Kelly left Newport, circumstances beyond her control bring her back. Now her old friends and her two exes have to help her uncover a nasty plot against her. Will be Malex eventually.
1. Kidnapped

Two years after Alex Kelly left Newport, circumstances beyond her control bring her back. Now her old friends (and her two exes) have to help her uncover a nasty plot against her. Will be Malex eventually.

Takes place as if nothing whatsoever interesting happened after Alex left. No Trey, no Johnny, no Volchuk. Newport has just been a boring rich town. The TV ratings for the O.C have been just terrible.

Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me, except Adam (not Brody!), and all of his lovely friends.

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"Hey!" shouted Alex Kelly, as she lay in the dark, musty trunk of some unknown car. "HEY! Let me out, you bastard!" She kicked the trunk ferociously, causing a very loud thump. "You're NEVER going to get away with this!"

"Shut up!" The voice was muffled, as it was coming from the front seat, but Alex heard it all the same. The speaker was a man, one who had grabbed her and abducted her about two hours ago, as she left a Los Angeles nightclub. At least, she thought it had been two hours ago. It was hard to keep track of time when you're locked in a dark trunk speeding down a motorway in god knows where.

She cursed loudly. This was the biggest trouble she had ever been in, no doubt about it, and she had been in a fair amount of trouble. Her latest ex boyfriend had just got into a load of drug related issues with the LAPD, and he seemed to think she was responsible. Asshole. Crystal meth had just made that stupid idiot think she had ratted him out to the police, she hadn't really. A thought struck her. Was this his revenge? Have one of his buddies _kidnap _her? She hadn't recognized the man who had stuffed her in the back of this car, but Adam had loads of friends she didn't know about. She swore again, and kicked the door of the truck three times, hard. "Let me OUT, let me OUT!"

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!" screamed the man driving the car. He was definitely getting ticked off, and with good reason. They had been driving for a long time, Alex's voice was loud enough that it carried pretty well, and she had been yelling bloody murder the entire ride. Despite her serious situation, she smiled a bit. She had a knack for being an extremely annoying girl when she wanted to be. _Now for the grand finale,_ she thought viciously. She lifted her foot, kicked the trunk five times, as hard as she could, and let out a long, shrill, piercing scream.

After thirty seconds of sheer, penetrating noise, the driver of the car lost it. Adding his own frustrated scream to hers, he pulled the car over, and stopped it. Alex didn't stop screaming. With a grim sense of satisfaction, she heard a car door slam, as the driver got out. Now, she assumed, he would take her out of the trunk and leave her by the side of the road as he drove away. This situation didn't worry her unduly, only her hands were tied, and she could escape from those bonds easily and catch a bus home, or something.

Unfortunately for Alex, her assumption was wrong. The driver's footsteps weren't walking toward the trunk to let her out; they were walking in the opposite direction. Away from the car. Her mouth got extremely dry. He was leaving her here!

No question, this was bad. Really, really bad. There was enough air coming through little gaps in the trunk door for her to breathe okay, but she had no water. No food. She would die here. Shock rushed through her system. Would Adam really kill her? Was he really responsible? He couldn't be. But was he? She was then hit with a sudden, fierce desire. The desire to survive, and the desire to get revenge. The kidnapper couldn't have left her in a completely remote area, could he? And she knew exactly how to attract herself some attention. She had been doing it for the past two hours, after all.

"HELP!" she screamed. "HEY, ANYONE! I'M LOCKED IN THE TRUNK!" Her voice was growing hoarse now, but she kept yelling, repeating her cry for help over, and over. "HELP!"

Eventually, she found herself decreasing in volume, lagging in energy. She was losing her resolve, and her stamina was dwindling. _Please, someone,_ she thought desperately, as she yelled continuously for aid. _Someone come._

Just as she lost track of the time, as she was starting to give up, she heard it. Footsteps. Two pairs of them, running toward her. "Hold on!" shouted a male voice. "Are you in the trunk?"

The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but Alex was too weary to try and place it. "Yes!" she moaned. "Let me out!"

She heard someone fumbling with the door. "It's locked!" said the someone, a female one now. This voice, too, sounded strangely familiar.

"Move, I got it," the male voice said. And there was a resounding CRASH on the door of the trunk, making Alex's teeth rattle in her head. She cried out. What was this idiot doing? Kicking the car? "Sorry!" called the voice. "Hold on, one more time should do it!" CRASH!

Somehow, amazingly, it worked. A flood of light rushed into the dark trunk as the door's lock broke, and it hung open. Alex's two rescuers lifted it up, and when she saw their faces, her fervent thank yous were caught in her throat. Because she recognized those faces. Both of them.

"Alex?" said the two teenagers together.

"Seth?" breathed Alex. "Marissa?" Her mind froze. Standing in front of her were a boy and a girl, each about nineteen years old. The boy was kind of gawky looking, a curly mop of ebony hair on his head, wearing a tight sweater, jeans, and a flabbergasted expression. The girl was, well, beautiful. She had shoulder length soft brown hair, delicate features, and was tall and thin, like the boy. These two teenagers had one other thing in common as well. Two years ago, when Alex had briefly lived in Newport Beach, she had dated both of them.

"Oh my god!" squealed Marissa, as she reached into the trunk and pulled Alex out. "What happened to you? Why were you locked in there?"

Seth looked equally shell shocked. "Who did this to you?" he gasped. "I'll kill him, I swear!"

With Marissa's help, Alex stood shakily. Seth scrambled to untie her hands, and she swallowed angrily. "Not if I kill him first," she scowled. "I think it was my ex boyfriend."

Marissa stared at her, a stupefied look adorning her perfect Newport features. "You _think_?" she said. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't recognize the guy's voice, but I think maybe he was Adam's friend. I never saw his face," Alex answered.

There was a short pause. Then Seth spoke. "Adam's a stupid name," he said.

Alex rolled her eyes, and Marissa let out a sigh of exasperation. Then she turned back to Alex. "Well," she said firmly. "No matter who did it, we'll catch him. Come on, let's get you some food and water, you look like you could use it. Seth, write down the license plate of that car she was locked in, we can call the police when we get home."

For the first time, Alex noticed her surroundings. "Holy crap!" she exclaimed. "We're in Newport!" And that they were. The car that she had been so recently held captive in was parked on a side street off of the main highway leading into Newport Beach. In the distance, Alex could see the waterline, where the Bait Shop, her old bar, stood. In the not-so-distance, she saw a car. A very nice, shiny, red sports car. Marissa's car.

Seth laughed a bit. "Of course we're in Newport," he said. "What, did you think me and Marissa just happened to be walking around Los Angeles at two in the morning?"

The three of them started walking toward Marissa's car, and Alex shook her head. "To be honest," she said, "I'm having problems coming to the grips with the fact that I'm here with you guys at all." She looked at her feet. "I haven't seen you in a really long time."

She climbed into Marissa's passenger seat, and a faint awkwardness entered the atmosphere. They had all parted amiably, but there were definitely some delicate issues between the three of them. Alex had broken up with Seth after he had stormed her old office and embarrassed himself. And Marissa... well, that was even more complicated. Alex glanced at her ex girlfriend nervously. She had made it clear her feelings for the gorgeous brunette were stronger than she had ever felt, and Marissa had unfortunately not felt the same way. The Newport beauty had liked her, of course, but just not enough. A twinge of hurt crept into Alex's stomach. She had moved on after Marissa had ended it, but she noticed now that she still really liked her.

Seth, of course, broke the silence. "Well, it's great to see you," he said. "You know, aside from the whole kidnapping thing."

Out of the corner of her eye, Alex saw Marissa shudder as she pulled onto Newport's main road. "What is it?" Alex asked. "Are you okay?"

Marissa nodded, but she still looked pale. "I'm fine," she said. "I just-" she took a shaky breath "-I can't believe you were kidnapped."

"Oh," Alex said. She leaned back in her seat. "I can't believe it either; it's insane that people still do that."

Marissa shook her head. "No," she said. "I mean, I can't believe _you_ were kidnapped." She looked over. "It really scares me to think that my friend could be hurt like that."

Alex didn't say anything. She didn't quite know how to feel about that. She was touched that Marissa was really worried for her well being, but there was still that word. _Friend._ Then she silently berated herself. She should be thankful Marissa still wanted to be friends, after all that had happened between them. Friends was better than nothing.

Seth spoke up again. "Go to my house," he said. "My parents are out; they won't be back till morning." Alex felt something swoop in her stomach. Seth's house? She swallowed nervously, wondering how to phrase the question she needed to ask. But luckily, Seth caught sight of her face in the rearview mirror. "Ryan's out too," he added.

Ryan. Alex didn't quite know how to feel about him. The last time she had seen him, she had brought two guys with her to beat him up. The time before that, she had thrown a beer bottle at his head. She smiled inwardly. No matter how much she knew that had been wrong, it still had felt really good. As they pulled into Seth's magnificent driveway, she glanced at Marissa. Was she still with him? Then she stopped herself. _Don't think about that,_ she thought. _It's none of your business anyway._

The three teenagers entered Seth's house, and Alex let out a sigh. It was really nice; as she had noticed the one other time she had been here. It was kind of funny how she had dated Seth for a good few weeks and only been to his house once, and that was after they had broken up. She looked at him, grinning. "Nice house," she said.

He grinned back. "Thanks. It's good for weekends, and, you know, vacations." He wandered over to his house phone. "Let me call and report that car, and then you can tell us all about how you got yourself into this mess."

After he was done, he led them all into the kitchen and explained the police would call back sometime in the next few days to update them on what they had found out. Then Alex ate two bagels and drank an ice tea, and told Seth and Marissa what had happened at the nightclub. How she had been leaving, and how the man had grabbed her roughly, bound her hands, and stuffed her in the trunk. When she explained how she had gotten him to pull over, Seth laughed out loud. "You annoyed him into submission? If that's not a superpower, nothing is."

Alex grinned. "Well, it worked. He pulled over, and I screamed like crazy until you guys rescued me." She paused. "Shit, I never said thank you, did I? Thank you."

Marissa gave a light laugh. "About time you remembered your manners." Seth nodded, shaking a finger at her mockingly.

She stuck her tongue out at both of them, and then something occurred to her. "Hey, why were you guys even out there? Some side street in Newport at two in the morning?"

Marissa looked sideways at Seth, smiling slightly. Seth suddenly looked stressed. "Crap," he whined, burying his face in his hands.

Marissa turned to Alex, still smiling. "Summer's birthday is on July 16th. Two days," she explained. "I was trying to help Seth think of what to get her, and he thought a midnight drive around town would give him some sort of brainwave."

Alex looked amusedly at Seth. "Well, you were looking for a birthday present, and instead you found me, locked in the trunk of a car."

Seth looked up. "I don't suppose _you_ want to be Summer's gift?"

"Not really," laughed Alex. "So you guys are still together?"

Seth nodded. "Yep. We've had a few rough patches, but we're still good. In the end, she couldn't resist my charms."

Marissa laughed. "Right. Charms."

Alex laughed too, and then looked up at her ex girlfriend. "Um, how about you, Marissa? Seeing anyone?" She felt distinctly awkward asking this. Somehow it wasn't the same as asking Seth.

Perhaps Marissa felt the uneasiness too, because she stumbled over her answer a bit. "Ah, kind of, I guess," she said. "It's hard to describe."

Alex felt like her heart had dropped through her stomach. "Ryan?" she asked. The name came out like a blockage in her throat. Marissa nodded, and Alex labored to maintain some sort of composure. _It's not like it's a surprise,_ she thought sadly._ It's not like she didn't leave you for him._

Probably noticing the tension in the room, Seth immediately changed the subject. "So this Adam guy, why would he get someone to kidnap you?"

Alex struggled to focus on what she was being asked. "Oh, right," she said, turning away from Marissa to face Seth. "Well, he was a tweak head, big time. Lots of meth, which led to not so much money. He'd steal, and lie, and I got sick of him, so I dumped him. After that, the police busted him on some selling he was doing, and I guess he was convinced I ratted him out. I was his phone call. He- well, it wasn't a very nice phone call, let's just say that."

Marissa frowned. "What did he say?"

Alex answered without looking at her. "Rambling about how much of a bitch I am, pretty much. How I'd get mine someday."

Seth raised his eyebrows. "How you'd _get yours_? Oh, he totally got you kidnapped."

Alex shrugged. "It's possible," she admitted. "He's got a lot of friends."

Seth lifted himself off of his chair. "Well, we'll find out when the police call back. They'll ID the car, and we'll see if you recognize the owner. In the meantime, I'm really tired. I gotta sleep." Then he looked down at the table. "Wait," he said. "Alex, you don't have a place to stay, do you?"

"No, I'm pretty sure the rent on my apartment ran out a while ago."

Seth smiled. "That was funny," he said. Then, "You can stay here tonight, I guess, no one's home. We may have to think about what we're going to do when my parents get back though. If you remember, they don't really approve of me and you sleeping over."

Alex smiled. "I remember." She stood up, stretching. "Am I on the floor?"

"You know it. Air mattress all the way."

Marissa stood up, too. "I should get home. My mom will freak if I don't show up soon, and then I get no cell phone for a week. I'll call you guys in the morning." She looked at Seth. "You should tell Sandy about this, you know. He might be able to help out tracking down these guys."

Seth nodded. "Yeah, I guess. As long as he doesn't ground me for having a lady spend the night."

Marissa rolled her eyes. "Considering the alternative is that lady spending the night in the trunk of a car, I'd say he'll be pretty lenient. See you guys later." She paused. "It was really good to see you again, Alex." Then she left, her footsteps echoing strangely in the big empty house.

Alex watched her go, and then looked quickly back at Seth. He was yawning widely, and already heading out of the kitchen. "I don't suppose _you_ have any idea what I should get Summer?" he asked her sleepily as they both headed upstairs.

Alex couldn't help smiling. Even though he meant well, Seth had a habit of turning the subject back to himself no matter what the situation. "No idea," she answered. "Me and Summer never really hung out that often."

They entered Seth's room, and Alex took a look around. Lots of posters of bands hung on the walls, and even more comics piled up in the corners. There was a plastic horse standing on the bedside table. Well, it definitely suited him. She looked around and saw Seth dragging an air mattress out of the closet. He moved it to the foot of his bed, and grabbed a pillow and blanket. He looked up at her. "Want to borrow some pajamas?"

"Ha ha ha," she said sarcastically. "I think I'm good." She lay down on the mattress, and realized how tired she really was. She pulled the blanket over herself, and closed her eyes. _Well,_ she thought, _Today was certainly an interesting day._

"Hey, do you think she'd like IMAX tickets?" a sleepy voice asked from somewhere above her. That was the last thing she heard before she fell asleep. The last thing she saw, however, was Marissa's face, swimming before her closed eyes, telling her how it had been good to see her again.

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	2. Evacuation

Okay, here it is, the second chapter. Enjoy, and review!

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Marissa knocked on Summer's door impatiently. "Come on, Sum, I really need to talk!" She looked down at her watch. 11:30am. She knocked twice more. "Please! It's eleven thirty already!"

Finally, the door opened, revealing a pajama clad Summer, and the faint sounds of the TV on. "This had better be good, Coop," said the tiny brunette as she stood aside to let Marissa in. "I was having a mid morning _Valley_ marathon."

Marissa sighed, sitting down on the bed. "Oh, it's good. Or, at least it is for Seth, I guess."

Summer's eyes widened a bit as she joined her friend on the bed. "This is about Cohen? Ooh, spill, what did he get me for my birthday?"

Marissa rolled her eyes. "No, it isn't about Seth."

"Oh... Is it Ryan? Are you guys still having that rough patch?"

"No, it's not about him, even though we are still having issues," sighed Marissa. "Well, actually, it's about... Alex."

Summer bit her lip, clearly trying to place the name. "Um... Alex? Alex who?"

Marissa sighed again. "Oh, you know, Sum. Alex. Remember? Worked at the Bait Shop? Blonde hair with a purple streak and tattoos?"

"Oh," said Summer slowly, her mouth open slightly. "Wait, Seth's Alex?"

"Mhmm."

"_Girl_ Alex?"

Marissa laughed. "Wow, this is sounding kind of familiar." Then Summer smacked her on the arm. "Ow! What was that for?"

Summer looked livid. "What do you mean 'what was that for'? You're cheating on Ryan with _Alex_?"

Marissa's eyes widened. "What? No! I'm not cheating on Ryan at all! Nothing has happened with Alex, Sum."

"Oh," said Summer again, visibly calming down now. "Wait- nothing has happened with Alex? Does that mean she's back?"

Leaning back on Summer's pillows, Marissa stared up at the ceiling. "Yeah. She's back."

"Oh, my god," said Summer. "Why?"

"She got kidnapped."

"_What?_"

Marissa sat up again, worry etched in her features. "I know! It's so unbelievable. Seth and I found her locked in the back of a car, Summer. Someone just left her there to die." She buried her face in her hands. "I just can't believe it. I mean, I know that _I_ ended it, and _I _chose Ryan, but-" she broke off, and looked up at her friend. "I still care about her. And I was so scared."

Summer wrapped her arm around Marissa's shoulder. "Oh, my god, Coop," she said softly, shocked disbelief lining her voice. "Someone tried to kill her? Why?"

"She thinks it was her drug addict ex boyfriend. He thought she turned him into the police, so he had his friend stuff her in the back of a car last night."

"Oh my _god_," Summer repeated. "Is she okay?"

Marissa nodded. "She's staying at Seth's. We're trying to track down the guy who did this with the license plate from the car. I think Seth's going to try and get Sandy to help too."

Summer frowned. "She's staying at Seth's? In his room?"

"Relax," said Marissa, smiling. "Seth's over her. He's probably bending her ear about _you_ right now."

Summer nodded, and then looked at Marissa warily. "Okay, Seth's over her. But are you? I know you still care about her, and you should, she's a nice girl. But you know what I mean. Are you _over_ her?"

Marissa took a deep breath. "I... I think so. I mean, I really love Ryan, I know that, even if we are fighting right now. But Alex... well, she was always different, you know?"

Summer snickered. "Yeah, she certainly is _different_ than Ryan."

"Oh shut up," said Marissa, elbowing Summer in the ribs. "Yeah, yeah I dated a girl, very funny. But seriously, am I over her?" She looked uncertainly at her friend. "I honestly don't know."

Summer bit her lip. "Well, then," she said. "Maybe it's not a good idea to tell Ryan about her, yet."

"My thoughts exactly," said Marissa. "He was out last night, so he hasn't seen her yet, but he'll probably be back this afternoon sometime."

Summer stood up. "Okay, then we need to get over to Cohen's house and get her out of there. We don't need any Ryan-Alex confrontations."

Marissa stood up, too, and headed for the door. "Absolutely," she agreed. "I've had enough of those to last a lifetime."

Fifteen minutes later, they were on the Cohen's front step, ringing the doorbell. Seth came to the door almost immediately. "You told Summer?" he asked Marissa as he opened it.

"Obviously!" said Summer, rolling her eyes. "I'm here, aren't I? Can we come in?"

Seth stood aside, and the two girls stepped in. Hearing noises from the kitchen, they headed that way. As they entered the room, Seth walking along behind them, they were greeted by the sight of Alex, Sandy, and Kirsten, all sitting around the kitchen table. Seth announced their presence. "Company's here!" he said, with the air of a salesman revealing a new car.

Alex looked up first, and her eyes met Marissa's. A strange, floaty sensation jolted Marissa's stomach, and she quickly looked away. _Think of Ryan,_ she thought furiously. _You love Ryan. _She walked toward the counter, and leaned against it. Mustering her self control, she then looked back at Alex. The blonde was still looking at her, the purple streak in her hair tucked behind her ear, her invigorating blue eyes probing into Marissa's. She swallowed slowly. Alex always had a way of making her feel like she was under some sort of inspection. _Ryan_, she reminded herself sharply. She forced thoughts of her boyfriend into her head, and the floaty feeling Alex was giving her lessened a bit. _There, that wasn't so bad,_ she thought glumly. Then she looked out the window. Speaking of Ryan, was he home yet? Was there still time to get Alex out of here?

Summer asked the question before she could. "So where's Ryan? In the pool house?"

Kirsten shook her head. "He's out. His new job sometimes gives him the midnight to noon shift. He'll be back in a half hour, maybe."

Summer and Marissa exchanged a quick glance. In the car, they had agreed the best place for Alex to stay would be Summer's house, seeing as if she stayed with Marissa it would make a difficult situation even more difficult. Summer quickly turned to Alex. "Um, hey," she said cheerily. "You know, me and you never really got to hang out! We should totally get some pancakes or something."

Judging by the fact that a flood of relief rushed over Alex's face at these words, Marissa was sure that the blonde girl was also aware a reunion with Ryan would not be a good idea. She stood up quickly. "Good idea," she said.

Marissa cleared her throat. "Uh, Summer, if you want to spend some more time with Alex, maybe she could stay with you. I know that Seth is probably busy with like, artwork or something."

Seth frowned a bit, and then he caught on. "Ohh... right," he said. "I'm really... busy. Drawings, you know. And, uh, video games."

"Right," said Alex. "Good idea. Want to get going, Summer?" She glanced at the clock. _Wow_, thought Marissa. _She really doesn't want to run into Ryan._

Summer nodded. "Sure. We'll walk down to the pier now." She turned to the rest of the room and waved. "See you later!"

Alex looked at Sandy. "You'll let me know if you get any breakthroughs?"

Sandy nodded, looking a little caught off guard at Alex's sudden desire to leave the house. "Um, yes. As soon as I hear anything from the police, I'll give you a call."

Alex nodded, and she and Summer quickly left the house. And then Sandy immediately looked at Seth and Marissa. "Okay, what the hell was that all about?"

Kirsten stared at them as well. "I have never seen anyone so eager to leave this house, and I'm including Sandy's mother."

Marissa took a deep breath. She had been hoping to avoid going into the details with Seth's parents, but she supposed she and Summer's evacuation plan was pretty obvious. "Um, well, Alex doesn't really like Ryan all that much.

Seth snorted. "That's a bit of an understatement."

Sandy nodded slowly. "Ah... Ryan. That makes sense; she bolted like that because he'll be home soon."

Kirsten frowned. "But why would she hate Ryan?"

Marissa blinked. Sandy and Kirsten didn't know about her history with Alex? She looked at Seth, who shrugged. Hmm. She had just assumed that they had needed some reminding about why Alex would want to avoid Ryan, not that they had no idea. She turned back to Kirsten. "Well," she started, "Do you remember two years ago, when Seth and Alex broke up?"

Kirsten nodded. "I never forget one of Seth's breakups. The angst level in the house just shoots up."

Marissa smiled a bit. "Right. Well, after Alex broke up with Seth, uh, she and I started hanging out a lot."

Sandy frowned. "And she didn't like Ryan?"

"No, Dad, Ryan wasn't even in the picture," Seth said, grinning.

Marissa elbowed Seth in the ribs. "Do you want to tell the story?"

Seth grinned wider. "Yes."

Rolling her eyes, Marissa ignored him. "Anyway, when me and Alex were hanging out, um, well, one thing led to another, and... we started dating. And we broke up because of Ryan."

Sandy's mouth dropped open. Clearly, whatever he had been expecting, it was not that. Kirsten on the other hand, looked like she had just remembered something important. "Oh," she said, her eyes wide. "Julie told me something along those lines... just not who the girl had been." She looked at Marissa, and then at her son. "It was Seth's ex girlfriend?"

Marissa shrugged. Seth just kept grinning. And Sandy finally found his tongue. "Well," he said. "I guess it makes sense that she wouldn't want to see Ryan then." He ran a hand through his hair. "So she'll be staying at Summer's?"

"Yeah. I mean, she can't stay with me, for obvious reasons," said Marissa, without thinking.

Sandy looked at her a bit strangely, and Kirsten raised an eyebrow. "What obvious reasons?" she asked. "She stayed here with Seth, and they dated and broke up as well."

_Oh, crap, _thought Marissa. "Um," she said lamely.

But just then, Seth came to her rescue. "Mom, Julie Cooper lives in that house," he said, raising an eyebrow at his mother. "Plus, Marissa's dating Ryan, he drops by her place often enough Alex would have to deal with him."

Kirsten nodded. "That makes sense." Marissa was relieved to see she looked placated.

Sandy continued to look a bit skeptical, but he also let it go. "Alright," he said. "Well, Alex lost her cell phone at some point during the kidnap, so I'll be calling Summer as soon as I get some information. For now, I guess all we have to do is wait."

Seth nodded. "Right. Hey Marissa, I figured out what to get Summer for her birthday. Want to come with me to pick it up?"

Marissa shrugged. "Sure." _It's about time he figured something out, _she thought.

But as soon as they stepped out the front door, Seth rounded on her, his eyes wide. "You still like her? Why didn't you tell me?"

"What?" asked Marissa, shocked. "What are you talking about?"

Seth rolled his eyes. "'_She can't stay with me for obvious reasons,_'" he mimicked in a high pitched voice. "Like you were thinking about your mom when you said that. You obviously still like Alex."

Marissa sighed. "Listen, Seth, I just don't know what I feel right now," she said. "I need some time to figure this out."

Seth was still frowning at her. "What about Ryan?"

Marissa gave him an exasperated look. "Honestly? I'm just trying to keep him out of all of this. I still love him, but we are kind of on the outs right now, and with Alex here..." She trailed off with a sigh.

Seth's look softened. "Well as long as you don't forget about him completely." He started walking toward Marissa's car. "Still want to go pick up my present with me?"

Marissa nodded, and gratefully slid into the driver's seat. After about a minute of driving along in silence, Seth cleared his throat. "So, you and Ryan are still having problems? I thought you were sorting that out."

"Well," Marissa started hesitantly, "I mean, we're trying to sort it out. It's just that ever since Lindsay left, he seems like a different person. And he keeps telling me that it was two years ago, and he's totally over it by now, but somehow I can't completely believe it." She shook her head sadly. "It still just feels like I'm the second choice. She left, and now he's back to me."

Seth was silent for a moment. "He really loves you," he said, after a pause. "He's always talking about you, and believe me, that's saying something. The guy used to never talk."

Marissa smiled as she pulled onto the road near the pier. "Yeah, I know."

They pulled into a parking space near an antique store down the road from the Bait Shop. Getting out, Marissa shot Seth a quizzical look. An antique store? Did he know Summer at all? But Seth just waved a hand at her, and walked into the tiny shop. Sighing, she followed him.

The shop was full of all sorts of stuff she recognized from fancy Newport auctions she had attended with her mom at several points during her childhood. Noble looking arm chairs, prestigious silverware, and expensive looking china cabinets filled every corner. Looking supremely out of place, Seth strode to the middle of the shop, and grinned as he looked at an ornate full length frame leaning against the wall. Marissa gaped at it. It was almost as tall as she was. "You're going to get Summer a _frame_?" she asked Seth dubiously.

He clucked his tongue at her condescendingly. "Now, now, Marissa," he said as he made his way toward the shop owner, who was sitting behind the register. "You stick to planning Summer a Newport-worthy birthday bash, and I will stick to getting her swoon-worthy birthday presents." He addressed the sleepy looking shop owner with a grin on his face. "How much for the big frame?"

Marissa watched him buy the antique frame with a bemused look on her face. When the owner had finally packed it up in a very large box, Seth stared at her expectantly. "Alright, Cosmo Girl. Time to help me get this into the car. Now, I realize Ryan would probably be better at the whole heavy lifting thing, but you are at least taller than me, so..."

Marissa stared right back at him. "You know, Seth," she said, shaking her head and moving toward the large box to help lift it. "You really have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

Seth raised an eyebrow at her before moving to help her get the box out to the car. "Funny, I could say the exact same thing about you."

Marissa sighed, lifting the right side of the frame up with a gargantuan effort, and thinking sadly that Seth was probably right about that.

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	3. Temptation

Alright, here's the third chapter... Also, just thought I'd mention that since I've got exams coming up, some of these next few updates may be spaced out a bit more. (But I will still be updating.. I find time in between subjects to fantasize about Olivia Wilde :) )

Anyway, enjoy, and please review, because they make me happy (and more likely to update!)

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Alex tapped her fingers absentmindedly on the table as she sat in the booth with Summer, waiting for her pancakes. Sun streamed in the window, bathing the entire little restaurant in natural light. Newport really was beautiful in July. She sighed, and looked across the table at her dining companion, who now had her cell phone out and was texting like mad. Alex raised an eyebrow. "Am I keeping you from some urgent appointment somewhere?"

Summer looked up. "What? Of course not," she said. "I'm just texting Seth, to see if Ryan's home yet."

Even though she was no where near the Cohen house, Alex's mouth still went dry. "And is he?" she asked.

Summer gave an impatient sigh, and put away her phone. "I have no idea, Seth's not texting back. He's probably wrapped up in some video game or something." She craned her neck, looking past Alex toward the restaurant's kitchen. "Wow, I am so starved, how long does it take to make pancakes?"

Alex smiled a bit. "You know, when you offered to take me out for breakfast, I didn't think you were actually going to. I assumed it was just an excuse to get out of the house."

Summer turned her gaze away from the kitchen and smiled back. "Oh, it was," she confirmed. "But I was hungry, and hey, when are pancakes ever a bad idea?"

"True," amended Alex, taking a sip of orange juice. "Thank you, by the way, I was _not_ looking forward to seeing Ryan again."

Summer smirked. "You thought _you_ didn't want Ryan to see you? You should have seen Marissa. She was ready to walk on burning coals to prevent him from finding out you're here."

Frowning, Alex put down her glass. "What do you mean by that? I thought you guys bailed me out because the last time I saw Ryan I almost had him whacked."

Summer suddenly looked as though she had just swallowed something very unpleasant. "Uhm," she stuttered. "Well, that's what I meant."

Alex leaned forward. "No, come on. Seriously, why does it matter if Ryan knows I'm here?"

"It doesn't, I was kidding... Ooh, pancakes!" said Summer, as the waitress finally arrived with two heaping platters of chocolate chip pancakes. "These are soo good," she gushed, immediately shoving a forkful of breakfast into her mouth.

Although she persisted with her questioning for another five minutes, Alex got no where in her interrogation of Summer, who seemed to be more focused on pancakes than anyone else in the history of the world. Eventually giving up, Alex lapsed into silence, starting in on her own breakfast, and thinking about all the strange turns her life had taken in the past day. Had Adam really kidnapped her, and what had he been planning to do with her? Would Sandy and the police track down the man who had shoved her in that car? And why did Marissa not want Ryan to see her so badly?

After a hearty breakfast, Alex and Summer left the restaurant, and began to make their way toward Summer's house. "It's not too far from here," assured Summer. "Only about five minutes... Ooh, about time!" Summer's phone had just erupted into what was unmistakeably the theme song to 'The Valley.' Alex kept from rolling her eyes with extreme difficulty as the petite brunnette dug through her purse, drew out her cell, and held it to her ear. "Seth?"

There was a slight pause as Seth spoke on the other end of the phone. "Oh, sure," replied Summer, after he had stopped talking. "Yeah, we're heading there now, actually, we'll meet you. Yeah, okay, bye." She hung up, and turned to Alex. "That was Seth," she explained unnecessarily. "He and Marissa are dropping by my house, he says he left something there yesterday, and he needs it."

Alex nodded. She had no objection to Seth and Marissa dropping by, because after what Summer had let slip in the restaurant, she was quite keen to have a chat with her ex girlfriend.

Five minutes later, Summer's spectacular house came into view, with Marissa's car already parked in the driveway. She and Seth were leaning on the hood of the car, clearly waiting for Alex and Summer to show. As the two girls strode toward them, Seth stood and wrapped his arm around Summer's shoulders. "We decided to wait for you," he said. "Because Marissa thought it would be polite, and well, your dad scares me."

Summer smiled. "You don't have to worry about that," she said, looking up at her boyfriend. "My dad's at work, it's only the step monster home now."

The two of them headed up to the front door, and Alex and Marissa both followed. Marissa gave Alex a small smile. "How was breakfast?" she asked.

The now familiar light headedness associated with Marissa's presense returned as Alex managed to smile back. "Pretty good," she replied. "Summer basically ate through a platter of pancakes twice her size."

Marissa laughed. "She does that." They entered the house, and continued to follow Summer and Seth up the stairs. They rounded the corner into Summer's bedroom, and the petite brunnette turned around to face Alex.

"So," Summer said, motioning around her room. "This is it, I guess. I'm pretty sure I've got an air mattress around someplace, if you'd like it."

Alex nodded. "Sounds good."

"Alright," said Summer. "I think it's downstairs, Seth, come with me and get it?"

Seth groaned. "All this heavy lifting today... my back is killing me." He slowly followed Summer out of the room and down the stairs, leaving Marissa and Alex alone.

Perhaps realizing this, Marissa sat rather awkwardly on Summer's bed. "So," she said, looking up at Alex. "Sleeping on a lot of air mattresses now, aren't you?"

Alex sat on the bed too, although she was careful to leave a good space between her and Marissa. "Yeah," she replied. "I'm thinking I'll just make my way around Newport. You know, sleep on the floor of every mansion." As Marissa laughed, Alex motioned toward the open door. "So, Seth and Summer. I always knew they'd last, however dysfunctional."

Marissa nodded. "Yeah, they're pretty much bulletproof. Although, I'm not sure how pleased Summer's going to be with her birthday present. It's weird, even by Seth's standards."

Alex grinned. "I don't even want to know," she said. "So, what'd you get her?"

"I'm planning her a huge surprise party."

"Oh really?"

Marissa nodded. "Yeah. But it's really not much of a surprise, as she keeps telling me when she's made modifications to the guest list. I don't even know how she found out about it, although I'm pretty sure Seth told her. Anyway, it's probably for the best that she knows about it now, seeing as it's going to be Saturday night, four days after her actual birthday."

"Right," agreed Alex. "She'd freak if she thought you hadn't got her a present on her real birthday." She grinned. Talking to Marissa was just as effortless as she remembered it, and it almost seemed like no time had past since they had dated. "She'd probably beat you up, or something."

Marissa laughed, and silence fell for a moment. Alex then wondered how to phrase the question she was burning to ask. "Um," she said hesitantly. "While we were in the diner, Summer said something interesting."

Marissa raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Alex swallowed. "We were talking about how you guys rescued me from the Cohen house, and I thanked her for getting me out before I had to see Ryan." She glanced very quickly at Marissa, and saw her face had gone just a tiny bit paler. "Well," Alex continued slowly, "Summer thought that was pretty funny- she actually said that my not wanting to see Ryan was nothing. She said that more than anything, _you_ didn't want Ryan to see _me_." She paused again, staring at Marissa. "And I was wondering why that was."

Marissa closed her eyes, looking exasperated. "What am I going to do about Summer?" she sighed.

Alex smiled. "I assume that's a rhetorical question."

Opening her eyes, Marissa gave a small laugh. "Yeah." She looked up at Alex, their eyes meeting. Alex felt like the temperature in the room had risen a few degrees. After a short pause, Marissa spoke again. "I didn't really want to have to explain this to you," she began hesitantly. "But I guess I have to now." She bit her lip. "You see, Ryan and I- we've been going through kind of a rough patch. A really long one. For a while now, I've had to try really hard to work things out with him, and it's been difficult."

Not entirely sure where this was going, Alex nodded slowly. "This rough patch- is it because of him, or you?"

Marissa shrugged. "I don't even know anymore. It's just... he's always so distant. And I know he loves me, but it just feels like any tiny little thing would completely ruin us." She sighed again.

Now Alex felt like she was starting to understand. "Oh," she said slowly. "And you're afraid I'm going to be that tiny little thing." Marissa nodded, but then Alex frowned. "Wait, that doesn't make sense," she said, confused. "Even if you guys are on thin ice right now, why would I make it worse? He knows you love him. And you and I are-" her voice broke a little, "-completely over. Why would I bother him?"

There was a pause. Alex looked quizically into Marissa's eyes, trying to read her expression. She noticed they were sitting a lot closer now; they had probably shifted while they had been talking. Then Marissa bit her lip. "You don't miss much, do you Alex?" she said quietly. Her voice was soft, and suddenly Alex felt the back of her neck get hot. She hadn't heard that tone in Marissa's voice in a long time. Brief scenes from the past flashed before her eyes. She remembered pounding rain on the roof, hands buried in her hair, hours spent holed up in her room.

Jerking herself back to the present, she spoke, her own speech almost as soft as Marissa's. "No, I don't miss much." She felt a warmth on her knee; Marissa had shifted closer, and their legs were touching. "Do you want to tell me?"

A soft laugh escaped Marissa's lips. "No," she whispered. "But I don't see that I have a choice." She gave a very small sigh. And then she spoke again. "I don't want Ryan to know you're here," she began, "Because I think he might notice how I'm acting around you."

Alex's heart seemed to skip a beat. "And how do you act around me?" she breathed, barely daring to hope.

Marissa smiled. She was now so close that Alex could feel her exhale. "I act like an idiot," she said slowly. She took a deep breath. "I act like an idiot, because I think I still have feelings for you."

Even though she had mildly suspected she might hear them, the actual words were like an explosion in Alex's chest. For a second, her vision blurred, and an overwhelming sense of euphoria flooded through her system. A smile made its way on to her face, and the world came back into focus. And there was Marissa, inches away, biting her lip. Downstairs, a phone was ringing, but neither of them made a move to go get it. They just sat there, breath slowly quickening, staring at each other with a kind of fierce intensity. They were very, very close now, and Alex suddenly became aware that they were getting closer; the distance between them was getting smaller and smaller as both of them leaned in. She could feel Marissa's warm breath, could see her lips part a little, her eyelashes flutter gently. She could have counted the number of freckles dusted across her nose. Her heart pounding furiously in her chest, she closed her eyes...

And then she heard footsteps outside in the hallway, entering the bedroom. She hurriedly opened her eyes and pulled back, trying hard not to look flustered. Summer was standing in the doorway, holding the phone. Her eyes flashed briefly but sharply as she saw how close they were still sitting, but she quickly turned her gaze on Alex, and held out the phone. "It's for you," she said. "It's Mr. Cohen- he says he needs to talk to you."

Alex stood up, and walked forward to take the phone. She stood in the doorway, and pressed the reciever to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hi, Alex," answered Sandy Cohen's voice. "All settled in?"

"Pretty much. It was easy, considering I don't have any luggage."

Sandy chuckled. "Well, don't worry, you'll soon remedy that. Staying with Summer, I'll estimate you'll be clothes shopping in no time."

"Right," replied Alex, smiling weakly. She was having trouble concentrating completely on the conversation; her head was buzzing with the reality of what had almost happened with Marissa. She turned around, and saw her ex girlfriend was still sitting on the bed, a slightly dazed look on her face. Then she realized she hadn't been paying attention to the phone. "Sorry," she said quickly into the mouthpiece. "I didn't catch that last bit."

Sandy's voice rumbled through the reciever. "I said," he repeated, "That the police just called back. They've identified the license plate on the car."

Alex's mouth went dry. "And?" she said quickly. "Who is it?"

"All they would tell me is the owner is a resident of Los Angeles," replied Sandy. "They want you to go down to the station and see if you recognize the name." He paused. "It might be a- well, emotional situation down there. You know, if it really is this Adam guy who was responsible for this. Bring someone with you, okay?"

"Yeah," said Alex, in a quiet voice. She glanced back at Marissa, and her heart started to beat a little faster. She wondered briefly what Marissa would say if she asked her to accompany her for moral support. _Yeah, like you'd really ask her,_ she thought glumly. "I'll bring Seth," she said to Sandy.

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	4. Guilty

Hey, look at this; I'm updating. With a pretty long chapter, too… woot. Keep the reviews coming, and Happy Friday!

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Marissa watched silently from the bed as Alex hung up the phone, gave a weak smile to her and Summer, and headed down the stairs. She was still in shock about what had just happened, still having trouble wrapping her head around it. The heady, dizzy feeling clogged her mind, and even though she knew she had almost done something she shouldn't have done, the guilt had definitely not settled in yet.

However, Summer was not quite as flustered as Marissa was, and was perfectly fine about dishing out the guilt. "Oh my _god_!" she hissed as soon as Alex's footsteps had faded. "_What_ do you think you were doing?"

Marissa avoided her eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, please," Summer scoffed. "I saw you, Coop, you totally were going to kiss her."

Marissa closed her eyes briefly. _Crap, Summer saw everything._ She sighed, and then looked up at her friend. "Well, I didn't kiss her, did I?" she said meekly.

Summer raised an eyebrow. "No, but not for lack of trying. If I hadn't walked in you two would be playing some serious tonsil hockey right now."

Marissa groaned. "Don't say tonsil hockey. It's lame."

"You know what else is lame?" asked Summer with a ferocious glint in her eye. She picked up a fluffy pink pillow, and deftly whacked Marissa in the head with it. "Cheating on your boyfriend!"

"I wasn't cheating!" protested Marissa, shoving the pillow away from her face. She looked pleadingly up at her friend. "At least, I don't want to be cheating."

Summer frowned at her. "Well, Coop, a little late for that."

Groaning again, Marissa fell back on the pillows. "You're right," she admitted miserably. "I completely wanted to kiss her. I'm scum."

Seeing her friend lying despairingly on the bed, a little bit of the fight deflated out of Summer. "Oh, come on," she said, sighing and sitting next to Marissa's knee. "You're not scum- you're just... confused."

Marissa gave a weak little chuckle, and then sat up. "Confused? About some things I guess- like Ryan. But not about Alex." She sighed. "I really do like her. When we were talking, I wanted to kiss her so badly. I couldn't help myself."

Summer closed her eyes. "I was afraid of that," she said. Then she opened them, and stared fixedly at her friend. "You know what you need to do?"

"Go find some whiskey?" suggested Marissa dejectedly.

"No," scolded Summer quickly. "You need to get your priorities straight."

"No pun intended, I'm sure."

"Oh, ha, ha, ha," said Summer bluntly. "No, seriously, you do. Okay, you like Alex, and there's nothing you can do about it. But, you also like Ryan. You _love_ Ryan. What you need to do is figure out who you can't live without." She fixed Marissa with her sternest look. "You need to go talk to him."

"Oh, come on," Marissa said despondedly. "I can't go talk to him now, he's asleep. He just worked a twelve hour shift."

But Summer was already pushing her to her feet. "That's no excuse," she insisted. "If he's asleep, wake him up. Trust me, he'll want to talk to you."

Marissa was still doubtful. "What am I supposed to say to him? 'Hey, Ryan, how was work? Oh, and Alex is back and I almost kissed her!'"

Summer rolled her eyes. "You don't have to tell him about Alex," she said. "Just- ask him to help out with the surprise party or something. Spend some time with him."

Marissa sighed, slipping on her shoes. "You know, the thing about that surprise party is that it's actually supposed to be a surprise. You're not supposed to know about it, Sum."

"Oh, please, Coop," laughed Summer. "You know you're no match for me."

"That is very true," grumbled Marissa as Summer pushed her out the door.

Alex and Seth were gone; they had left a note on the counter that they had taken Marissa's car down to the police station and would be back soon. "I guess we're taking my car then," said Summer amusedly.

They were at the Cohen's house in less than five minutes. Summer stopped the car in front of the front door, and then stared at Marissa expectedly. "Okay," she said. "Go on, then."

Marissa squirmed a bit in her seat. "You're not coming with me?"

Summer scoffed. "Yeah, right, Coop. This is about you and Ryan, not me." She checked her hair in the rearview mirror. "Plus, I have to go over the guest list again. No way am I tolerating the entire typical student-skank body."

"Right," said Marissa, rolling her eyes. She opened the car door and stepped out. "Call me later, okay?"

"Duh!" said Summer, waving as she pulled away.

Sighing, Marissa walked up the front steps and knocked twice on the door. Kirsten answered it with a smile. "Hi, Marissa," she said warmly. "Seth and Alex are still down at the station, but I'm sure Seth's cell is on."

_She thinks I'm here for Alex,_ Marissa realized with a slight twinge of guilt. _I guess that says something about how often I've been over here for my boyfriend. _"Actually," she said, "I was wondering if Ryan was up yet."

A slight look of surprise crossed Kirsten's features, but it was quickly replaced by the smile. "Oh," she said. "Well, I don't think he's quite awake yet, but I'm sure he'd be happy to see you. You can just go out and wake him."

Marissa thanked her, and headed out to the pool house. Sure enough, all the curtains were shut, but the door was unlocked. She pushed it open slowly, trying to limit the amount of blaring sunlight that squeezed through into the dark room. "Ryan?" she whispered. "Are you in there?"

After a moment, she heard a mattress groan as its occupant rolled over. "Marissa?" a bleary voice asked. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," she answered. "Sorry to wake you."

A light clicked on, and the room came into focus. Ryan was sitting up in bed now, a faint urgency making its way into his eyes. "Is something wrong?" he asked. He pushed the covers off of himself to reveal he was wearing a pair of blue Star Wars pajama pants and a wifebeater. Marissa hid a smile with difficulty.

"Uh, no," she said quickly. "No emergency, I was just in the neighbourhood and I was wondering if you were available. You know, to hang out." She paused, and then decided she couldn't resist. "Are those Seth's pajamas?"

Ryan looked down and grinned. "Oh, right. No, they're actually mine."

Marissa raised an eyebrow. "Gift from Seth?"

"Well, yeah."

They laughed, and Marissa almost felt like she could really be comfortable around Ryan. "So," she said with a smile. "Do you want to play some Playstation or something?"

Ryan raised an eyebrow, brushing his shaggy blonde hair out of his eyes. "Marissa Cooper challenging me to video games," he observed. "Well, there's something you don't see everyday. Sure, why not."

They played a few games, all of which Marissa lost spectacularly at, and all of which Ryan teased her unyieldingly about. "You know," he said after a spirited round of _Call of Duty_, "the point of the game is to have your opponent step on the mines you leave out, not to step on them yourself."

"Oh shut up," she retorted. "I forgot I had put it there! These buttons are so confusing." She smiled at him. They hadn't just hung out like this in a long time, and she found that she had missed it. Ryan gave her a comfortable feeling, like she was safe.

He grinned back at her, and stretched, leaning back against his mattress. "You know," he said, "I missed this. And I really am sorry about being so distant lately."

Marissa nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I know." She paused, and then spoke again. "Why did you do it? The distance, I mean."

Ryan stared at the TV screen, his eyes clouded. "I just- I don't know."

There was a brief silence. The relaxed atmosphere that had filled the pool house thinned out a bit as Ryan continued to stare blankly ahead and Marissa turned her gaze slowly around the room, lost in thought. She knew of course, that she truly cared for Ryan, but here he was again, spacing out, in his own little world. It had been like this for years, a few moments of comfort, and then the crash of depression and sadness. Something within Ryan was just _off._ Suppressing a sigh, she turned back to her boyfriend, about to suggest another game. Then she saw it.

At first, it looked just like another shirt or pair of odd pajama pants tucked into an open drawer on Ryan's dresser. And then she recognized the colours, the shape. A small, red and white hat was placed tenderly in an open sock drawer, just next to Ryan's bedside. Marissa's stomach tightened as she realized what it was. A _yamaclaus_. Lindsay's Christmakkuh invention from two years ago. She felt a sudden burst of anger. _I knew it, _she thought bitterly. _I knew he wasn't over her. Even after all this time._

Ryan's voice broke her out of her reverie. "Marissa?" he was saying softly. "Sorry, I zoned out. Listen, can I ask you something?"

She tried to keep the frostiness out of her voice. "Sure."

Ryan cleared his throat. "Tomorrow I was going to go out and shop around for Summer's gift. For her birthday, I mean." He glanced at her. "I was wondering if you'd come with me."

For a second, Marissa was sorely tempted to refuse, to send his hopes crashing down to teach him for keeping that yamaclaus in his sock drawer. But then she remembered how upset Summer and Seth had both been when they had realized her feelings for Alex. A stab of guilt twinged in her stomach, and she forced a small smile onto her face. "Sounds good."

A grin spread across Ryan's face. "Great," he said happily. He turned back to the TV. "Another round?"

But despite the fact that she had resolved to work things out with him, Marissa suddenly felt like she couldn't stand another minute in the company of her boyfriend. "Actually," she said, getting up, "I really have to be going. I promised my mom, so."

His face fell a bit, but Ryan nodded. "Oh," he said bluntly. "Well, I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

She nodded, and headed toward the door. "Yeah. Talk to you later." She left the pool house, still fuming slightly. _He's got some nerve, _she thought furiously as she pulled out her cell phone to call Summer to pick her up. _Asking me to go shopping with him when he's still hung up over Lindsay. _She punched the first few numbers into her phone. _I wish he could just be honest with me. Would it be so hard to say what he means? Alex always does..._

She stopped herself. She was halfway through dialing Summer's number, but she had just realized the truth of what she had been thinking. Alex always _did_ say what was on her mind, touchy subject or not. She had done that just that morning, when she had wanted to know why Marissa had wanted to hide her presence from Ryan so badly. She hadn't stewed over it, snooping around behind her back. She had just come right out and asked.

Slowly, Marissa pressed the 'end' button on her cell phone. She thought of what Kirsten had said earlier. '_Seth and Alex are still down at the station, but I'm sure Seth's cell is on_.' She started to dial a new number into her phone. Suddenly it wasn't Summer she wanted to come pick her up.

The phone rang twice before Seth picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hey, Seth," Marissa said hastily. "Are you and Alex still at the station? I was thinking you guys could maybe come and pick me up from your house. I'm sure Summer's busy with some guest list fiasco."

"No, we left the station about fifteen minutes ago," Seth answered. "I just dropped Alex off at Summer's." He paused. "Wait, why are you at my house?"

Marissa felt a little deflated. Alex wasn't even with Seth anymore, she was already back at Summer's. She answered Seth's question half heartedly. "Oh, I was visiting Ryan."

Seth sounded surprised. "Really? Well, that's great, I guess. Sure you want me to come pick you up?"

Marissa rolled her eyes. "Yes. I'm sure."

"Right. I'll be there in two minutes."

Five minutes later, with Marissa now sitting on the front steps, Seth pulled up in her car. "I forgot you had this," she said, getting into the passenger seat.

Seth raised an eyebrow. "Did you? Wow, Ryan must have had you pretty distracted."

"Ugh, Seth," she groaned. "Quit it."

He frowned. "Not such a good visit?"

"Well, we made plans for tomorrow," she sighed. "But I don't think either of our hearts were really in it." _Especially his,_ she thought bitterly. _He's too busy mourning Lindsay._

"At least you're hanging out," Seth said pointedly. Then he stopped at the end of the driveway. "Hey, should I drop you at home, or what?"

Marissa sat there for a moment, thinking. She _could_ go home, but that would just mean sulking in her room and avoiding her mom, which didn't sound like much fun. On the other hand, she could go to Summer's... her stomach gave a lurch. Alex was there.

The decision was made instantly. "Summer's," she said firmly. "I don't want to go home yet."

"Sure," said Seth. As he turned left, he glanced sideways at her. "That doesn't have anything to do with the fact that Alex is at Summer's, does it?"

"No," said Marissa, too quickly.

"Right," said Seth, obviously not believing her. "You know, I'm definitely not against the lady loving, but you're not exactly making your life any easier with this."

Marissa ignored him. She had just remembered something. "Hey, how did it go at the police station? I forgot to ask on the phone."

Seth took a deep breath. "Oh yeah," he said. "Well, they had this address, and a name, and they wanted to see if Alex could identify them."

"And could she?"

"She knew the address," he confirmed. "But not the name. She said that back when she was with Adam, she would sometimes pass that house on the way to his place."

Marissa frowned. "What does that mean?"

Seth shrugged. "I don't actually know," he admitted. "She's supposed to go down to LA tomorrow with my dad, to go by the place again and see if anything jogs her memory." He paused. "Honestly, I think the police were expecting her to know that name. I think they're kind of grasping at straws."

That didn't sound good to Marissa. "They don't have any leads at all?"

"We'll find out tomorrow, I guess."

They were almost at Summer's house. "Hey," said Marissa suddenly. "Are you going with Alex tomorrow, as well?"

Seth smiled sheepishly. "Uh, probably not. I mean, they told her to bring _someone _along with her again, but it's most likely not going to be me. I kind of messed around at the station a bit."

Marissa rolled her eyes. "What'd you do? Hold a stapler like a gun and try and shoot someone with it?"

Seth coughed. "You're not actually that far off."

"I don't even want to know," Marissa groaned.

Seth gave her a sideways glance again as they pulled into Summer's driveway. He parked the car, and then turned to face her. "Look," he said. "I know that you're trying really hard with Ryan, and everything, and you probably don't want to hear this... but at the station, well." He sighed. "It felt pretty obvious that I wasn't the one she really wanted to bring."

Marissa tried to keep the sudden giddiness she felt from showing on her face. "Well," she said in a forced calm. "You _did _try to shoot her with a stapler gun."

A lopsided grin made its way onto Seth's face. "Well, I didn't try and shoot _her._ And it wasn't a stapler, exactly."

Marissa got out of the car quickly. "Don't want to know!"

Laughing, Seth got out as well. "Your loss. It's a good story."

"I'm sure."

They made their way up to Summer's door, and let themselves in. Summer and Alex were sitting in the living room, watching a movie on the big screen TV. Summer looked riveted, practically glued to the screen. Alex was sitting upside down on an armchair, playing with the remote, and looked bored out of her mind.

Seth grinned as he took in the scene in front of him. "Having fun?"

"Shh!" Summer hissed. "He's totally going to propose!"

Alex looked toward the hallway. "Thank god," she said, swinging around so she was right side up. She looked in desperation at Seth and Marissa, and sprang out of her seat. "She's making me watch _chick flicks_."

Summer waved a hand at her, absentmindedly. "It's good for you. Now _shh_. Cohen, come see this, it is _so _cute."

Seth walked toward Alex's vacated armchair like a convicted man walking to the noose. "Hellboy," he muttered under his breath. "Think of Hellboy."

Alex made her way swiftly across the room toward Marissa, who was still standing in the front hallway. "I swear," she said. "That movie is like torture."

Marissa grinned and glanced at the TV screen. "I've seen that one. It's not too bad."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Right." She motioned toward the kitchen. "Hungry?"

Marissa nodded, and followed Alex into the kitchen. The blonde opened the fridge and pulled out some peanut butter. "Sandwich?"

Marissa nodded again, and took a seat at the table. For a moment, the only noise was the distant sounds of the movie Summer and Seth were watching, and the rustle of plastic as Alex opened a bag of bread. Then she looked up at Marissa. "Look," she said. "About this morning-"

Marissa who had been expecting this, just waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it," she said hastily. "No problem."

"It's just that I know you and Ryan-"

"Forget it," said Marissa firmly.

Alex hesitated for a moment, and then gave a small smile. "Right." She started to spread some peanut butter on a piece of bread, and then looked up again. "So, did you talk to Seth about the police station?"

"Oh," said Marissa. "Yeah, he said you're going down to LA tomorrow."

"Yeah," confirmed Alex, getting strawberry jam out of the fridge. "Although, I don't think he's going with me this time. He was kind of more of a hindrance than a help, to tell you the truth."

Marissa smiled. "He did mention that he might not be invited back."

Alex laughed. "Well, he's got that right." There was a short pause, and then she spoke again. "I'm still supposed to bring someone along, though."

Marissa's heart did a funny little jump in her chest. She stayed silent, staring over at Alex, who was biting her lip, and looking as if she was steeling herself to do something.

After a short pause, Alex looked up from the sandwiches, her probing blue eyes poring into Marissa's. "Listen," she said suddenly. "I know that sometimes I come off as all tough, or whatever, but..." She bit her lip again. "Well, today- that was hard for me. I'm just starting to come to grips with the fact that someone I knew, someone I trusted, might actually want to kill me." She took a deep breath. "And I need someone who understands me to come with me tomorrow." She looked up. Marissa could see a hidden vulnerability she had never seen before in her eyes. "I need you to come with me."

A few seconds before, it had seemed like Marissa's heart was going so fast it was going to burst right out of her chest. Now, it seemed like it had just stopped beating altogether. She stared into Alex's eyes and she felt as though she could explode with the sheer feeling that she could see there. She knew that Alex needed her and that made her, more than anything else, want to accept, to say she'd be there. She also knew that a trip to LA would likely take all day, and she would have to blow off Ryan. But, at the moment, sitting in Summer's kitchen with a girl who she cared about, and who needed her, she found she just couldn't refuse. "Of course I'll go," she said breathlessly. "Whatever you need for this to be okay."

A warm smile broke out on Alex's face. "You don't know how much this means to me," she said softly. A strand of blonde hair fell into her eyes.

And once again, Marissa found she couldn't say a word. All she could do was smile back.

---


	5. Eavesdrop

Okay, chapter five is up. I think the sheer size of this chapter displays just how much I have _not_ been studying for exams. But hey, less than a week and they're over, and I can stop feeling guilty :)

As usual, please enjoy, and please (_please_) review!

_---_

_I am such an idiot_, thought Alex as she bit into a sandwich and sat down at the table with Marissa. _Why did I ask her to come with me? I'm just trying to worm my way into her life again. And I already know how it ends. I've lived through it once. _She swallowed hard as a wad of her lunch got clogged in her throat.

Marissa, who was watching her, smiled a bit. "You put a lot of peanut butter on the sandwiches, didn't you?"

Alex couldn't help grinning back. "Too much for you?"

Swallowing a big bite of her own sandwich, Marissa laughed. "No way. I'm no peanut butter novice."

Alex laughed as well, and they steadily ate their way through two helpings of lunch. As she finally swallowed her last bite, Alex marveled about how easily they were talking, and how even though this morning they had almost kissed, (and both of them knew it) there wasn't much awkwardness. _Plus,_ thought Alex, _she even told me she still likes me._ The notion gave her a happy twinge in her stomach, and a wide smile made its way onto her face.

"Hey, glad to see that _someone_'s still smiling," came a voice from the kitchen entrance. Looking over, Alex saw that it was Seth, accompanied by Summer. The latter promptly whacked the former on the shoulder.

"That was a good movie, Cohen!" she said sharply. "It just shows you can't appreciate true art." She came and slid into the seat next to Marissa. "So," she asked her, "How's Ryan?"

Alex managed to keep from choking on her glass of milk, but it was a very near miss.

Marissa was suddenly looking strained. "Uhm," she said. "Good, I guess."

Swallowing with difficulty, Alex looked up at Summer. She had a suspicious look on her face now. "Hmm," she said slowly. "Marissa, could you come upstairs with me for a second? I think I left something in my bedroom."

With an air of a guilty child, Marissa got up from the table and followed her friend toward the stairs. As the girls' footsteps faded upstairs, there was silence in the kitchen. Seth sat down at the table and picked up the last sandwich and bit into it. They stared at each other. No one spoke for about thirty seconds. Then-

"Oh, go on, eavesdrop, I won't tell Summer," sighed Seth, closing his eyes and leaning back in his chair. "Just promise to tell me if you overhear anything relating to me in any way."

"Thanks," said Alex gratefully, getting up from her seat, stealing down the hallway and creeping up the stairs. She made it to Summer's bedroom door without any major creaks, and saw when she got there that it was open just enough so she could hear every word spoken from within. Hardly daring to believe her luck, she crouched next to the door to listen. The next words she heard were Summer's.

"So what?" the feisty brunette was saying, "So he has a yamaclaus in his room, so what? You know those people and their holiday obsession."

Outside the door, Alex frowned. _What the hell is a yamaclaus?_ she wondered. She pressed her ear closer to the door to hear Marissa's response.

"Oh, come on," came Marissa's voice skeptically. "It's _July._ He's obviously not thinking about the holidays."

There was a sigh. "Alright, fine, you're right," said Summer. Then her voice got slightly sharp again. "But you still should not have blown him off like that!"

Marissa sounded exasperated. "What was I supposed to do? Refuse to go with her when she asked me?"

Alex heart was now beating very hard in her chest. _Are they talking about me?__  
_  
"Yes!" exclaimed Summer. "Yes, you were! You can't just go promising to go to LA with her when you already had made plans with Ryan. Do you have any idea how _inappropriate_ that is?"

"Ugh!" groaned Marissa. "Ugh, I know, Summer! But I just... I can't say no to her."

Alex's heart was now pounding so furiously she was surprised it wasn't audible. _I can't believe it,_ she thought, amazed. _She likes me enough to blow off her boyfriend?__  
_  
From inside the room, the bedsprings creaked as someone leaned back on the bed. "Fine, Coop," Summer sighed. "Well, whatever your reasons were, you have a decision to make now. Are you going shopping with Ryan, or are you going to LA with Alex?"

"I don't know," replied Marissa wearily.

"Geez, Coop... Well you have to decide by today, alright? You can't just wait til the last minute to blow someone off."

"Okay. Okay, I'll decide today." Silence fell in the room.

Recognizing her chance, Alex got up very quietly and stole back down the stairs. Seth was still in the kitchen, biting into an apple. He looked up from the table as Alex re entered the room. "So?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Alex collapsed in a chair. Her mind felt numb. She had no idea what to think, what to feel. She looked up at Seth. "My life is pretty much a twisted knot of confusion," she said finally.

The eyebrow was raised even more. "Wow," he replied. "I never really took you for a drama queen."

Alex gave a weak laugh. "You have no idea," she said, leaning back in her chair.

Seth leaned forward, looking curious. "Okay, then give me one. What's up?"

Alex cocked her head. "You really want to know?"

"Yeah."

Alex nodded, and looked Seth in the eye. "Alright. Well, first off, I think I was kidnapped by my ex boyfriend, who probably wanted me dead. Also, I'm staying with the best friend of my ex girlfriend, who I've realized I still like a lot. Plus, that particular ex girlfriend told me this morning that she still likes me as well, and we almost kissed. But, she also has a boyfriend, who was the reason she broke up with me in the first place. On top of that, I just found out that she made plans with him to go shopping tomorrow, before she made plans with me to go to LA. Which means that she was planning to blow him off for me." She took a deep breath. "So, basically, I think that I'm going to go crazy."

Seth was wide eyed. "Holy..." he said, awed. "I think _I'm _going to go crazy just hearing about it. What are you going to do?"

"Do about what?" came Summer's voice. Turning, Alex saw both Summer and Marissa were standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Alex swallowed, and quickly turned to Summer.

"Uh, nothing," she said offhandedly. "Just today. I've got no plans, so."

Summer nodded. "Oh. Well, I don't really know what I'm doing today either." She turned pointedly to Marissa. "What are _you_ going to do, Coop?" This would have been a very clever code if Alex hadn't heard every word they had discussed upstairs. Perhaps Seth guessed what was going on as well, because he quickly spoke up.

"Uh, I was thinking of going down to the pier," he said hurriedly. "You know, maybe get some ice cream." He looked at the three girls. "You guys want to come?"

"Sure," agreed Marissa, sounding grateful for the change of subject. Summer nodded that she'd come as well. Seth looked at Alex.

"Coming?"

"Ice cream," commented Alex, smiling as she remembered another time she had had ice cream in Newport. "It's like you're eight years old."

Something sparked in Seth's eyes as he also remembered. "And three quarters," he added cheekily.

The four of them walked slowly down Summer's street toward the pier, not bothering to take a car. They had all afternoon, and were in no particular rush. Seth and Summer walked ahead a bit, bickering amiably about the acting talent in chick flicks. Marissa and Alex strolled a little behind them, listening to the argument and doing quite a bit of eye rolling. When Summer mentioned that she thought romantic movies were 'the glue holding popular culture together', Alex actually laughed out loud.

"What?" challenged Summer, turning her head.

"Nothing," said Alex quickly, as Marissa mouthed 'rage blackouts' at her while shaking her head furiously.

When they reached the pier, Seth pulled them all over to the ice cream stand immediately, almost butting in front of a pair of nine years olds who couldn't make up their minds. "Seriously," he whined to Alex, who had held him back. "How long does it take to decide between chocolate and vanilla?"

After they got their ice cream ("Finally!" said Seth), they walked down toward the beach. Seth finished his cone first, and tried to eat some of Summer's, who promptly ran pell-mell down the waterline to save her treat from being stolen. Alex laughed as she watched them. "He's such a kindergartener," she commented to Marissa, shaking her head fondly.

Marissa nodded, and grinned. "He really is." She bit into her waffle cone, and then frowned a bit, and turned questioningly to Alex. "What were you guys talking about back at Summer's, when you called him an eight year old? It felt like an inside joke."

Alex smiled. "Oh, right. For our first- date, I guess you could call it, I told him he was eight at heart because he took me out for ice cream as a nightcap." She paused. "Actually," she added, "It was more like I took _him_ out for ice cream, because I ended up paying."

Marissa laughed. "That sounds exactly like Seth, making you pay for your first date." They walked slowly along the beach, following Summer's hysterical protests as her boyfriend tried to steal her ice cream. The tide washed against the sand rhythmically. And then Marissa let out a small laugh.

"What?" asked Alex.

Marissa motioned toward a small section of beach near a bridge. "Speaking of first dates," she said quietly. She shot a small glance at Alex, whose heart was pounding again. She too, was recognizing the surroundings now. For the second time in one day, scenes from the past flashed before her eyes. The smell of the sea, the sand in between her fingers, the feeling of Marissa's lips when they first kissed...

She smiled, somewhat awkwardly. "Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

Marissa nodded, giving a shaky laugh. "I've had a lot of memories coming back today."

"Me too," Alex said quietly. She licked her ice cream for a moment, as they walked along in silence. Then she turned to look at Marissa. The brunette was staring out at the sea, looking lost in her own thoughts. "What are you thinking about?" she inquired curiously.

Marissa jumped a little, startled. Then she gave a small smile, and sighed a bit. "I'm trying to make a kind of- difficult decision."

_Oh,_ thought Alex. _The Ryan or Alex decision._ She was silent for a moment, and then decided to ask. "What kind of a decision?"

Marissa paused. "Well," she answered, after a moment. "It's actually kind of... about you."

Alex tried to look as if this was news to her. "Oh."

"Yeah," said Marissa. Then she turned toward Alex. "I don't mean to freak you out," she said quickly. "It's not bad, or anything."

Alex sighed inwardly. _Might as well tell her_. She had never been good at keeping secrets, even her own. "I, um," she started hesitantly. "I already kind of know."

Marissa looked confused. "What?"

Biting her lip, Alex shot Marissa an apologetic glance. "When you and Summer went upstairs to talk, I- well, I followed you and listened at the door."

Marissa was wide eyed. "Really?"

Alex squirmed. "Yeah," she answered guiltily.

To Alex's surprise, Marissa looked more amused than angry. "Well, I guess it's easier for me to tell you if you already know. You heard everything?"

"Pretty much."

"Right." Marissa was silent for a moment. Then she gave a small laugh. "It just feels like my life is getting more and more complicated."

Alex smiled. "I know the feeling."

Marissa returned the smile. "Sorry. I know I probably have something to do with that."

"That's okay, I don't mind," said Alex, realizing that this was actually the truth. "I missed you...I guess I like my life better complicated with you in it, than simple without you at all."

Something about this statement seemed to register in some way with Marissa, because she suddenly adopted a very curious expression. After a small pause, she spoke again, quietly. "You know, I think I know what you mean. Can you hold on a second?"

Alex nodded, and Marissa stopped walking to rummage around in her purse for something. Finally, she pulled out her cell phone, and dialed a number. She held the phone to her ear, and a finger to her lips. "Don't say anything," she whispered to Alex. "The sound of your voice is not something Ryan needs to hear."

Surprised, Alex nodded again. _Ryan?_ she thought questioningly. _She's calling Ryan? To do what? _She had a sneaking suspicion, but was skeptical about whether or not it was correct...

But it was. Marissa (with an amazing lack of detail) told Ryan a 'circumstance' had arisen that made her unavailable for shopping tomorrow. Apologizing profusely, she hung up. Alex looked at her with wide eyes. "I can't believe you just did that," she said quietly.

Marissa ran her fingers through her hair. "I kind of can't believe it either," she admitted. "I feel bad about lying to him. But I think a police investigation trumps a shopping trip, and I had to make a decision today, right?"

Alex nodded. "Yeah, otherwise Summer would kill you for waiting until the last minute."

An amused grin made its way onto Marissa's face. "You really did listen at the door, huh?"

Alex blushed. "I was curious."

Marissa laughed. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you blush before."

Alex shrugged. "I'm full of surprises," she said, smiling. Then there was a particularly loud shriek from the waterfront. Startled, she looked over toward the ocean to see Seth still chasing Summer along the beach, a discarded ice cream cone lying forgotten in the sand.

Marissa, who had also looked toward the shore, laughed lightly. "Five years ago, if someone told me those two would be the most perfect couple I know, I would've questioned their mental health."

Alex smiled. "They're like Romeo and Juliet," she agreed. Then, as an afterthought, "But not as dead."

Marissa laughed, and choked on her last bite of waffle cone.

The two of them wandered around the beach for a little while longer before going to tell Summer and Seth it was probably time to leave. Fairly sun burnt, and in Summer and Seth's case, soaking wet from the knees down, they made their way slowly down the main road away from the pier.

Five minutes later, Seth and Marissa bid them goodbye, both saying they had to be home for dinner, and heading down a winding street that would lead to both their houses. Summer and Alex kept walking, still about five minutes from Summer's house. As she walked, Summer's shoes squished audibly with every step, because they were drenched with water. She gave an exasperated sigh as she caught Alex's smirk. "I should have worn flip flops," she said regrettably, glancing down at her flats.

Alex laughed lightly. "Or maybe, you should have taken off your shoes before running through the water."

With a small smile, Summer shrugged. "Maybe. But, hey, I was defending my ice cream. Cohen can be pretty determined sometimes."

"I know," said Alex. There was a short silence, and then she added, "You really love him a lot, I can tell."

Summer smiled again, staring blissfully over the distant horizon. "Yeah," she agreed quietly. "I mean, sometimes I can't believe I do, but yeah."

Alex stared ahead at the fading afternoon sun, as well. "I wish I could find that," she said wistfully, her thoughts sifting through her various teenage romances. Jodie, Seth, Adam... Marissa. Her stomach twisted.

Summer sighed. Alex shook herself out of her reverie to see the tiny brunette looking sadly at her. "I think maybe you have," said Summer quietly.

Alex was taken aback. "You mean Marissa?"

Summer raised an eyebrow. "You honestly think I haven't noticed how you look at her?" She sighed again. "Or how she looks at you?"

Alex's heart was pounding again. "Even so," she said, more to herself than to Summer, "She's got Ryan."

"She does." Then Summer shook her head sadly. "But I'm worried about that." She gave Alex a sideways glance. "Can I be honest with you for a second?"

Not knowing exactly what to say, Alex just nodded. Then Summer went on. "Marissa likes you," she said bluntly. "You've probably already figured that out, because she tried to kiss you. And don't try to deny it," she added hastily as Alex opened her mouth, "Because I saw you. Anyway, she likes you, and you obviously like her." She looked almost apologetically at Alex. "Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to make you back off because I want you to be miserable, or anything." She sighed. "It's just, I'm worried about what this is going to do to Ryan."

Alex found her voice. "I've actually been thinking about that as well," she admitted. "Particularly since she just called him and told him that something had come up and she can't go shopping with him tomorrow."

Summer raised her eyebrows. "So she picked you?"

Alex shifted, rather uncomfortably. "I guess. It's just-" She was silent for a moment, staring blankly ahead. "This is starting to feel kind of familiar to me. When we dated, I got the feeling Marissa was only with me to piss off her mom. And now I know that she's mad at Ryan... what if she's only spending more time with me to teach him a lesson?"

But Summer just looked at her in disbelief. "_That's _what you think?" she said blankly. "_Seriously?_ That Marissa doesn't like you?" She laughed. "Do you have any idea what you're doing to her? Her life would be so much easier if she didn't have to deal with you- no offense. But what I mean is; trust me, if she could let you go, she would. But she can't."

Alex felt slightly numb. "I don't think I can let go of her, either," she said quietly.

Summer sighed. "I didn't think so," she said glumly. "You know, if things weren't so messed up, you two would be the cutest thing I've ever seen."

Alex smiled sadly. "Unfortunately, 'messed up' seems to follow me wherever I go."

Summer smiled too. "I've been trying to hate you," she admitted. "You know, out of loyalty to 'the core four,'" She emphasized the words with air quotation marks. "But I can't. I'm starting to see what Coop has been talking about." Another smile. "You're pretty irresistible for someone who wears t-shirts that say 'Stay Away.'"

As Alex laughed, they turned onto Summer's driveway, and walked up to the front door. As Summer fumbled with the key, (her step monster had locked her out, again,) Alex leaned against the door frame. "So what do I do?" she asked weakly. "Marissa's coming up to LA with me tomorrow, but should I cool it after that? I don't want to mess up her life. Or mine," she added as an afterthought.

Summer finally got the door open, and turned to Alex. "Maybe you _should_ back off," she admitted. "But... -and I can't believe I'm saying this- maybe you shouldn't." She fixed Alex with a searching gaze. "I think maybe you two need to figure this out for yourselves." With that, she stepped through her front door.

After a pause, Alex followed her, and walked slowly after her into the kitchen. Throughout dinner, she was quiet, lost in her own thoughts. Summer didn't try and make conversation, but ate in silence as well. For this, Alex was grateful. She had a lot to think about.

---


	6. On Our Own

My exams are officially done, and Chapter six is up! What could be better? ...Hmm, wait, I know; reviews! :) Enjoy! ... and review!!

---

When she woke up, it took Marissa a moment to remember why there was a knot of nerves lodged uncomfortably in her stomach. And then she recalled yesterday, when she had confirmed her plans to go into LA with Alex. She lay in there for a moment, her sheets sticky with the July heat. Then she rolled out of bed, yawning but not really feeling very tired. She dressed slowly and attentively, changing repeatedly when she was dissatisfied with her outfit. She had always done this when she was nervous. In the seventh grade, before a particularly important class presentation, she remembered changing her outfit twenty seven times.

When she finally decided on a blue and white tank top with her new skirt, she sauntered down the stairs, and found her mom in the kitchen, reading a magazine and holding a styrofoam cup. Wondering when her mother would finally learn to brew her own coffee, Marissa opened the fridge, and took out some milk.

"Good morning, Marissa," said Julie cheerily. "That's a cute outfit."

_It'd better be,_ thought Marissa vaguely. _I changed it about a million times._ Aloud, she simply said "Thanks," and drank a gulp of milk right out of the carton.

"Don't drink from the carton, honey."

"Right." Marissa wiped her mouth absentmindedly and replaced the milk back in the fridge. Then she turned to her mother. "Um, I'm going to LA today," she said, trying to sound offhand. "So if anyone calls, just tell them I'm out."

Julie raised an eyebrow. "I usually do," she said, a hint of a smile playing about her lips. "Seeing as you're never home. What are you doing in LA?"

"Oh, nothing." Marissa cursed herself almost as soon as she said this. '_Nothing'? That just screams of suspicion._

Julie seemed to be somewhere on the same wavelength. "Nothing," she repeated amusedly. "Right. Are you going with Ryan?"

A sharp stab of guilt twisted in her stomach like a hot poker. "No," she said quietly.

Now frowning, Julie put down her coffee cup. "Are you going with a boy _other_ than Ryan?"

"No," answered Marissa again, truthfully. She grabbed an apple, and made for the door, so as not to give anything else away. "Bye," she said over her shoulder, "I'll probably be back late."

She slipped into her shoes, grabbed her purse, stepped outside, and shut the door behind her. Letting out a deep breath, she stood on the doorstep for a moment. Then she took her phone out of her purse, and dialled. Sandy picked up almost immediately.

"Hi, Marissa. Ready?"

Marissa walked down her driveway. "Yeah," she answered. "I'm in my driveway."

Sandy chuckled. "So am I." Sure enough, as Marissa looked up, she saw the Cohen's car pull into her driveway. Sandy was holding a phone to his ear and grinning. With a slight pang, Marissa saw Alex was sitting in the passenger seat. She gave a small wave.

Stuffing her phone into her purse, Marissa made her way to the car, and let herself into the back seat. "Hey," she greeted them. "Good timing."

Sandy laughed again. "We were going to come earlier, but Alex said there was no way you'd be up yet. Late sleeper, huh?"

Marissa laughed too, feeling supremely glad that Sandy didn't comment on how exactly Alex was so familiar with her sleeping habits.

They exited Orange County, and got onto the highway, the sun shining over the water, bathing them all in light. Sandy was flipping through radio stations, and Alex was fiddling around with her window controls, obviously lost in thought. Marissa closed her eyes and smiled, allowing the air getting in through the window to hit her face, her hair moving around with the wind.

After about forty minutes, they got off the highway. Marissa saw a sign on the side of the road; "You are now entering Los Angeles, California." Alex closed her window, and Sandy turned the radio down.

"Okay," he said, glancing sideways at his passenger. "We're going to drive by the place first, and see if anything jogs your memory at bit more. Then, if it doesn't, I'll go up to the door and ask a few questions. It would probably be best if whoever lives there doesn't see you immediately, so you and Marissa will stay out of it at first. Sound good?"

Marissa could see Alex nod through the passenger side mirror. Then she looked toward Sandy. "When you say 'at first'," she said inquisitively. "Do you mean Alex is going to be talking to whoever it is eventually?" This could potentially be a kidnapper, and Alex had already been through too much, in her opinion. She could hear the worry in her voice.

Evidently, Sandy could as well. "She might," he admitted. "But if she does, I'll be there as well, and you will be too, if you want to."

"I want to," said Marissa immediately. She saw Alex smile through the mirror.

Quietly, they pulled onto a tiny residential street. It wasn't a rough looking neighbourhood, exactly, but it wasn't exactly very nice either. As they drove down it, Marissa thought it had a distinctly gloomy feeling. Peering at the row of silent houses, she noticed almost all the curtains were drawn.

Then she heard Alex's quiet voice from the front seat. "That's it," she said, almost whispering. "The one with the green trimming."

Sandy peered over to check the house number with the one he had written down on a piece of paper. "That's it, all right," he confirmed. Then he pulled over to side of the road, and turned the car off.

Alex was still staring at the house. "You're going in there now?"

Sandy nodded. "Yes. You should probably get in the back seat," he said, undoing his seat belt. "You're too visible from up here. You two wait in the car, I should be back in about fifteen minutes."

Alex nodded and got out of the car. She slid into the back with Marissa. Then Sandy got out as well, and straightening his tie, he started walking up to the house with the green trimming.

It was very quiet. Both girls kept watching Sandy until he was out of sight, obscured by a cluster of trees on the front lawn. Then Alex sighed and leaned back in her seat. She smiled sheepishly at Marissa. "I didn't think this would make me this nervous."

Marissa smiled back. "I did."

Alex laughed a little. "I guess you know me better than I know myself."

"Sometimes," said Marissa, considering. "But then again," she added with a smile, "Sometimes I have no idea what's going on in your head."

Alex was silent for a moment. Her expression had turned strangely unreadable. Then she looked at Marissa, meeting her right in the eye. Marissa suddenly felt as though her insides had floated away. "What is it?" she asked breathlessly, surprising herself with the fact that she was capable of speech.

"I've been thinking a lot," said Alex, her voice very, very quiet. "About you."

Marissa was not quite sure how to respond to that. Her heart fluttered. "Oh."

Alex gave a small smile. "Yeah." She bit her lip, and Marissa suddenly found it much more difficult to concentrate on the actual things Alex was saying. Her heart was beating very fast. Trying to pull herself together, she listened as Alex spoke again. "We're making things very difficult for both of us," she was saying.

A laugh slipped from Marissa's lips.

Alex looked at her curiously, still smiling slightly. "What?"

Marissa let out a shallow breath. "You have no idea," she said simply.

Alex stared searchingly into her eyes, and leaned forward a bit. "Give me one."

Marissa's heart was thudding in her chest, and her palms were sweating. She felt distinctly lightheaded. _How does she do this to me? _she wondered vaguely. "I-" she stuttered faintly. "I-"

Marissa felt a warmth on her hand as Alex slipped it into hers. "Breathe," said the blonde quietly. A smile tugged at her lips.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Marissa tried to steady herself. When she opened them, she found herself lost in the blue of Alex's. And suddenly she found her tongue. "I can't even function around you," she said in a sudden burst of resolve. "When you look at me- I can feel my heart pounding." She saw Alex's eyes widen a bit, but kept talking anyway. "When you smile at me... I forget everything around me. I don't know how I can be around you if you affect me like this, but I can't _not _be around you, and I just don't know what to d-"

But Marissa Cooper never finished that particular sentence, because Alex Kelly kissed her.

It was... bliss. Everything Marissa had been worrying about, every stress, every trouble, just melted away. For a split second, she was so stunned she felt like she had received an electric shock. Alex's warm lips were pressed against hers, a hand in hers, another in her hair. She let out a slight moan, closed her eyes and pressed herself as close to Alex as she could possibly manage. Sparks of exhilaration flooded through her system as she surrendered to the longing she had been trying to suppress for what felt like forever. Every place Alex was touching her tingled with a warm euphoria. She tasted rich coffee and something like dark chocolate. She never wanted to stop, never wanted to leave the back seat of this car, never wanted to feel anything else but this, ever again...

But all too soon, it was over. Alex had pulled back, breathing a little heavily, biting her lip. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have done that."

Marissa felt distinctly confused. "Why are you sorry? What's wrong?"

Alex closed her eyes briefly. "I'm just making things more difficult. I told myself I was going to keep myself in control."

"What? Hey, look," said Marissa, placing a hand on Alex's leg and looking her in the eye. "You aren't making anything more difficult, okay? If you hadn't done that, I probably would have."

Alex gave a rueful smile. "I was afraid of that." She took a deep breath. "What about Ryan?"

Marissa could almost feel herself deflate. "Oh, crap," she said quietly.

"Yeah," agreed Alex. She leaned her head back on the seat. "What are we going to do?"

Marissa slumped back in her own seat. "God, I don't know. I don't want to hurt him, I just..." she trailed off.

She felt Alex sit up next to her. "I know," said the blonde, smiling a bit. Glancing somewhere out Marissa's window, her expression changed. "Sandy," she said quickly.

"What?"

"Sandy's coming back, here, sit up..."

They managed to make themselves presentable before Sandy reached the car. Marissa unrolled her window. "What happened?" she asked anxiously.

Sandy ran a hand through his hair. "Well, it's not what we expected," he said. He motioned toward the house. "The woman who lives here is eighty three years old. Two days ago, her car was stolen."

Alex caught on first. Marissa could feel her slump in the seat a bit. "False alarm," she said.

Sandy nodded. "Yeah." He looked sincerely sympathetic. "I'm sorry, kid. The police will keep looking. They'll catch this guy." He walked over the driver's seat and got in.

Alex nodded, and stared quietly out the window. If Sandy wondered why Alex didn't return back to the front seat for the ride back to Orange County, he didn't let on, but merely drove in silence, allowing her to sit quietly in the back with Marissa, and think things over.

When they reached the O.C, Sandy dropped both girls off at Summer's house, and they walked slowly up the driveway to the front door. Before they entered, however, Marissa turned to Alex, and caught her arm. "Wait."

Alex took her hand off the doorknob and looked searchingly at Marissa. "What is it?"

Marissa sighed. "You're right. We're making things very difficult."

Alex's shoulders slumped slightly. "Yeah."

Seeing Alex upset like this, more than anything, gave Marissa the resolve to speak her mind. She took a deep breath. "But," she said firmly, "I have no intention of walking away. Not this time."

Looking a bit startled, Alex blinked. "What do you mean?" she asked slowly.

"I don't want to ruin what I have with Ryan," Marissa said. "But that doesn't mean that I'm just going to ignore what I feel for you." She fixed Alex with a determined look. "I don't know how yet, but we're going to figure this out."

Something like exhilaration flashed across Alex's features. Her deep blue eyes sparkled, and Marissa felt herself beginning to feel lightheaded. And Alex smiled. "Wow," she said.

Marissa returned the smile. "So we're going to do this? Figure it out on our own?"

Alex nodded, still smiling, and turned the knob on the front door. "We'll think of something."

Feeling relieved, like finally she had succeeded in restoring some order to her life, Marissa followed Alex into the house. Hearing voices from the kitchen the two girls headed in there, to find Summer and Seth sitting at the table, eating take out Thai food. As he saw them enter, Seth looked up in surprise. "Hey," he said bemusedly. "You two are back early. We expected you out all day."

Alex shook her head, and sat sluggishly in a chair next to Summer. "False alarm," she said despondedly. "The lady who lived at that house had her car stolen the day I was kidnapped. It makes sense, actually." She half heartedly stole some of Summer's pad Thai.

"Why do you people have such a problem with me eating my own food?" Summer grumbled, possibly recalling Seth stealing her ice cream the day before. She pushed some extra food toward both Alex and Marissa. "Here, there's extra."

But Marissa was still hung up on something Alex had said. "What do you mean 'it makes sense'?" she asked, looking inquisitively at her. "What makes sense about the fact it was a false alarm?"

Alex shook her head, and swallowed a mouthful of food. "No, I mean it makes sense that a car on _that _street would be stolen. I told you before that me and Adam always used to drive by there on the way to his place. It would make sense that he would steal a car from somewhere in his comfort zone. He's kind of a wimp, really."

Seth's eyes were wide now. "Well that's something like evidence, right?" he asked urgently. "Shouldn't you tell the police that?"

But Alex shook her head again. "Not enough to go on," she said simply. "Little things like that would never hold up in court. The police were telling me all about those type of things at the station yesterday, while you were fooling around with the office supplies."

Seth ignored this jibe, and kept talking as though he had not heard it. "Well that's crap," he said heatedly. "There's enough 'little things' to have a solid case against this Adam guy, and they've got no idea what they're doing." He sighed. "It sucks that they're pretty much all we've got to rely on."

Summer and Alex nodded along miserably, but Marissa didn't. Seth (and possibly the aftermath of her conversation with Alex) had given her something of an idea. "Wait," she said slowly, putting down her fork and leaning forward toward the table. "What if they weren't all we had to rely on?"

The others looked confused. Seth cocked his head. "What do you mean, like, the FBI?"

Marissa rolled her eyes. "No, not the FBI, us!"

Something sparked in Alex's eyes as she caught on. "You mean, figure it out ourselves?" she said, a small smile making its way onto her face.

Marissa nodded enthusiastically. "Sure, why not? I mean, you figured out that little thing with why Adam would steal the car. Plus, we know more about him than the police do."

Seth was nodding as well. "Yeah," he said slowly, but with building excitement. "I mean, we've got everything to gain, right? As long as Adam and his people don't notice us sneaking around, what can go wrong?"

"Never say 'what can go wrong,'" warned Summer sharply, ever the superstitious one. But she turned to Marissa and admitted, "It's a good idea."

Now smiling very widely, Alex looked at Marissa. "So, we're going to do this? Figure it out on our own?"

Marissa smiled back, and picked up her fork again. "We'll think of something."

---


	7. Caught

Lucky number seven, everyone. I think there are at least a few plot-advancements in this one, which is good. So read and enjoy. Also, please review! ....please? It'll make me write more! :)

---

Alex woke the next morning to the unmistakable sound of a shriek. Without even opening her eyes, she turned over on her air mattress and groaned inwardly. _I guess Summer's awake,_ she thought dully.

Her suspicion turned out to be correct. Feeling her mattress rock, she opened her eyes to find Summer had jumped onto it. "Ohmygosh!" the tiny brunette squealed, almost shattering Alex's eardrums. "It's my birthday, I'm nineteen!"

Abandoning all hope of going back to sleep, Alex sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Happy birthday," she yawned. "What time is it?"

"Oh, who cares?" said Summer happily, prancing off Alex's mattress and heading to her closet. "What should I wear?"

Still yawning, Alex ripped off her covers, and stood up. "How about an old t-shirt and sweatpants?" she suggested sarcastically. But Summer was clearly not listening to her, and was still busy cooing over several outfits which probably cost about as much on their own than Alex's entire wardrobe did put together. With a slight smile, Alex walked lazily over to the corner of the room where Marissa (the only one who wore her size) had dropped off some clothes.

She got dressed rather slowly, but was still finished before Summer had decided on an outfit. Wondering vaguely whether Summer was planning on being ready before her birthday was over, she wandered over to the bedroom door. "I'm going downstairs," she said, on the off chance Summer would hear her, and headed to the kitchen.

Yesterday morning, Alex had found the house unoccupied except for Summer's stepmother, who in any case seemed to be in some sort of a coma. Today, however, upon entering the kitchen, she found it was already occupied. A handsome, middle aged man whose brown hair was streaked with grey was standing next to the toaster, drinking a cup of coffee. When he heard Alex enter, he lifted his head.

"Hello, Summe-" he began, and then stopped, as he realized Alex was not, in fact, his daughter. "Oh," he started again, a bemused expression on his face. "I didn't realize we were entertaining."

"I'm Alex, a friend of Summer's," Alex said hurriedly, in case this man was under the impression she was some sort of slow witted burglar. "I'm just staying here for a few days."

"Oh," said the man again. He crossed the kitchen and held out his hand, smiling now. "I'm Dr. Neil Roberts, Summer's father."

"Nice to meet you, Dr. Roberts."

"Please, call me Neil," he corrected with a chuckle. "Now, did Summer show any signs of coming down here any time soon? I took the morning off work today so I could wish her a happy birthday."

_Wow, that's a dedicated parent, _thought Alex, a little jealously. "She's still trying to pick out an outfit," she said aloud. "I think she expects some sort of a fashion show as soon as she leaves her bedroom."

Neil laughed good naturedly. "This is Newport Beach," he said, pouring a second cup of coffee and handing it to Alex. "Everyday's a fashion show."

Alex accepted the coffee graciously, and took a sip. Then she heard Summer's voice coming from the hallway. "Alex?" called the voice. "Who are you talking to?" Bounding into the kitchen wearing a remarkably colour-coordinated top and skirt, Summer's mouth fell open. "Daddy!"

Neil's face split into a wide grin. "Happy Birthday, Summer!" He put down his coffee mug and walked forward to envelop his daughter in a hug. "That's a great outfit."

Summer pulled away from the hug, beaming. "Thanks, Daddy." She flashed a quick glance at Alex, and then back to her dad. "What are you doing home?"

"I took the morning off work today," Neil explained, picking up his coffee again. "I wanted to wish you happy birthday, and I have to go talk to Julie Cooper anyway."

Summer made a face. "Why?"

Neil laughed at his daughter's expression. "Business. The Newport Group is thinking of investing in our new office downtown." He checked his watch. "I should actually be going soon." He looked back at Summer. "Have a great day, I'll see you tonight. I'd give you your gift now, but I want to save it for your party on Saturday."

Alex raised an amused eyebrow. "Isn't that supposed to be a surprise party?"

Neil's eyes twinkled. "It's _supposed_ to be." He gave his daughter one last hug, and then put down his coffee and picked up his briefcase. "Happy Birthday again, Summer. And nice to meet you, Alex." He smiled, and headed whistling toward the door.

"He seems nice," commented Alex as she heard the front door open and shut.

Summer nodded, smiling, and opened the fridge. "He's great," she agreed. She took out some orange juice, poured herself a glass, and then looked back at Alex. "Was he surprised to see you?"

"Yeah, I guess," she answered, taking another sip of coffee. "I mean, I'm some weird kid with tattoos who showed up in his kitchen at nine in the morning. But he was pretty cool with it. He didn't try to have me arrested, anyway."

Summer raised an eyebrow. "I don't think anyone would have you arrested just for sleeping over."

Alex smiled grimly. "Clearly you've never met Jodi's parents."

Summer let out a disbelieving little laugh. "They tried to have you arrested?"

"Well," began Alex, hiding a grin behind her coffee mug. "On that particular occasion, I wasn't just 'sleeping over,' if you catch my drift."

Summer rolled her eyes. "Ugh," she groaned, heading over to the cupboard for a box of cereal. "Way too much information."

Still grinning, Alex poured herself some cereal as well, and the girls sat down to eat and talk about what was to be the day's main focus; how to begin their investigation on the kidnapping.

"So you're sure he's never shown any car stealing initiative?" Summer was asking. "You'd never walk through parking lots and his fingers would get all twitchy?"

Alex snorted. "No, I told you, he never talked about cars." She paused, and took another bite of cereal. "Although, I guess that doesn't mean he wouldn't steal one if he needed it. He's.... he's like Julie Cooper. Evil wrapped in mystery with a fake sincere smile."

Summer laughed at the comparison, and drained her last drop of orange juice. And then she suddenly paled, as though all the blood in her face had leaked out. "Oh my god," she breathed.

"What?" asked Alex urgently.

"Julie Cooper!" blurted Summer, who had lifted herself out of her chair and was stuffing her half finished bowl of cereal in the sink. "That's who my dad just went to see. And he's a pretty chatty guy; there's a good chance he'll mention you're here!"

Alex stood up as well. "Not good."

"No it's not!" Summer was punching numbers into her cell phone. She held it to her ear for a moment, and then took it away again, increasingly agitated. "Marissa's cell is off, she's probably still asleep. And my dad's phone is never on-we've got to go over there, come on, I'll drive..."

The girls rushed out of the house, and Alex quickly strapped herself into the passenger seat. Her heart was pounding, and she impatiently tapped her fingers against the dashboard as Summer fumbled with the keys. How could they have let Dr. Roberts leave without telling him to keep quiet about Alex's presence? She fumed silently at her own stupidity. If Julie Cooper found out she was here, not only would she likely do her best to keep Marissa away from her, but she would also tell Ryan. And that would spell disaster in so many ways it wasn't even funny. Alex bit her lip. "Come on, Summer!"

"Okay, okay..." Summer finally got the car started, they pulled out of the driveway, and quickly started to make their way to Marissa's house. This route, if the speed limit was obeyed, and all stop signs were stopped at, usually took about five minutes. Summer and Alex made it in two.

As soon as the car was in the driveway (parked behind a large water feature), Alex made to take off her seatbelt. Summer stopped her immediately. "What are you doing?" hissed the tiny brunette. "You're going to storm into Julie's house to make sure she doesn't find out you're here? I don't know about you, but that seems like an extremely stupid plan to me."

Alex took her hand away from her belt. "Okay," she said impatiently. "Then you go in there and stop him."

Summer shook her head. "Too late, he's been in there too long. He's probably with Julie now, if I rush in there and ask to talk to him privately she'll get curious. And if she's curious, I guarantee she'll do anything to figure out what she's looking for."

Alex felt extremely frustrated. "So what, we're just supposed to sit in this car and do nothing?"

But Summer's eyes now had a mischievous twinkle. "Oh, I didn't say we were going to do nothing. Come on, follow me. But keep out of sight."

Summer got out of the car, and started creeping quietly toward the side of the house. Bewildered, Alex followed her, wondering what exactly was going on. Just as she was about to whisper that question in Summer's ear, the brunette came to a halt. "Okay," she said quietly, looking straight up at the side of the house that they were now standing next to. "This is it."

Alex looked up as well, not quite sure what she was looking for. They were at the left side of the house, staring up at a bunch of vine covered wall, and two windows. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, Alex turned back to Summer. "I don't get it."

Summer bent low to the ground, searching for something. She snatched something up, and straightened again. "That window on the right," she said, "is Marissa's room." Then she opened her hand, and Alex saw four or five small stones in it. Summer then pointed up to the window. "Your job," she explained, "is to throw these at the window and wake Marissa up. Tell her to distract her mom for a few minutes. In those few minutes, I'll sneak in and warn my dad to keep his mouth shut."

Alex just gaped at her. "You want to me to throw rocks at her window?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any idea how ridiculous this plan is? There are probably a million easier ways to do this."

"Probably," Summer admitted, dumping the stones into Alex's hand. "But at the moment, we don't have the time to think of them. So get throwing. I'll be waiting at the door, which I think you can see from here. When Marissa's gone to distract her mom, wave at me." With that, Summer hurried off toward the front door, leaving Alex with a handful of rocks and an exasperated look on her face.

Still feeling fairly ridiculous, Alex picked out one of the stones in her hand. She looked up at Marissa's window, and gave a fleeting sigh. "Oh well," she muttered. "I must be crazy, but here goes." And she threw the rock. To Alex's amazement, it made contact with the window. _Tap_. She waited for a moment, but no one opened it. She looked helplessly over at Summer, who was mouthing something at her from the front door. _Throw again._

So she did. Again, the stone made the _tap _as it made contact, and again, Marissa did not wake up. Cursing under her breath, Alex tried again. _Tap._ Nothing. And then a fourth time. _Tap._ Nothing again. Now feeling as though she was certainly screwed, Alex threw the fifth stone almost angrily. But this time, about ten seconds after the stone made contact, the window opened, and a head of tousled light brown hair stuck out of it.

"Marissa!" hissed Alex, burying her surprise that Summer's plan had actually worked. "Down here!"

Marissa looked down with a stupefied look on her face. "Alex?" she said incredulously. "Why were you throwing stuff at my window?"

Alex waved a hand at her. "I'll explain better later," she whispered hurriedly up to the window. "Right now, I need you to do something. Downstairs in your house right now, Summer's dad and your mom are having a conversation. This morning, Dr. Roberts met me in his kitchen, and he could tell Julie about me at any second; Summer and I forgot to warn him to keep his mouth shut. We need a diversion; you need to distract your mom while Summer deals with her dad!"

If Alex was expecting bombardment with skeptical questions, she was mistaken. As soon as she had finished talking, Marissa just hissed, "I can guarantee you two minutes," and then withdrew her head from outside her window, leaving Alex standing somewhat shell shocked on the ground. Then, remembering her instructions, she jerked her gaze over to Summer, and waved. She watched as Summer gingerly opened the front door, and snuck in.

Alex had always found that time never seemed to behave properly in times of stress. She stood awkwardly outside Marissa's window for what seemed like an eternity; surely it had been two minutes, at least. What if Julie hadn't fallen for Marissa's distraction? What it Summer had been caught? Alex chewed her lip nervously. Was Julie interrogating every last detail out of Summer right now?

But just as Alex was giving up all hope, she saw the front door open, and two people stepped out. Quickly moving to hide behind a particularly robust bush, she peeked out to see that Julie and Neil were now both making their way down the driveway, having a conversation vaguely punctuated with polite laughter every now and then. Stock still, Alex watched them both get into Neil's car (thankfully not seeing Summer's, which was hidden by the water feature), and drive away. As soon as the car was out of sight, the front door opened again, and Marissa stepped outside.

Alex rose from behind the bush, and started to walk toward her. "What happened?" she asked, as she reached the front step. "Where did they go? Did it work?"

Marissa nodded, running a hand through her still slightly bed-mussed hair. "Yeah, it worked. Summer managed to tell her dad to keep quiet about you while I was distracting my mom. They went out to breakfast to discuss some work stuff."

Alex smiled, her stomach lurching. She was having trouble focusing on the conversation; Marissa had obviously not had time to change, and was still wearing threadbare pajamas, which were probably appropriate considering the heat, but were playing havoc with Alex's concentration.

Luckily, Summer chose that moment to intervene. "Hey!" she called from the kitchen, her voice traveling through the still open door. "Will you guys come inside? Aren't you supposed to be keeping yourself a secret, Alex?"

"Right," said Alex, shaking herself out of her brief stupor. She followed Marissa through the threshold and closed the door behind her. They made their way down the hallway, and into the kitchen, to be greeted by Summer, who was flipping through a magazine that had been left on the table.

"I can't believe that worked," said Marissa as she and Alex sat down.

Summer smiled. "You can say it; I'm brilliant."

Alex rolled her eyes, making Marissa giggle. "Yes, brilliant." She gazed over the table and was surprised to see a familiar newspaper sitting on one corner. "Why do you get the _LA Times_?" she asked Marissa, reaching over the grab it.

Marissa shrugged. "My mom likes to get subscriptions to papers she'll never read. She says she likes to be 'informed', but she always just ends up reading _Vogue._"

Summer gave a light laugh, but Alex was now staring at the newspaper, her eyes wide. "Oh my god," she breathed.

"What?"

Her mouth dry, Alex held up the paper, pointing at a small article on the third page. "_Jonathan Booth,_" she said weakly,_ "Age 28, released early from prison due to good behaviour."_

Summer frowned. "So?"

"I recognize that name," Alex explained, her heart thumping in her chest. "Jonny Booth. He was Adam's friend, he was always telling stories about him." Both Marissa and Summer's eyes widened. Alex pushed the paper closer to them. "Read the offenses."

Marissa took the paper, and read, "_Physical assault, and car theft._" She looked up, her eyes bright. "Oh my god," she said, excitement building in her voice. "This is him! This is our guy; it must be! Look, his release date was last week... The article says he's violated his parole! He's missing!"

"He got scared," Alex realized, sitting back in her chair. "He's gone into hiding since he kidnapped me; he left me in that car... he must think he's committed a murder!"

Summer got up out of her seat. "Well, he hasn't," she said triumphantly, digging around in her purse and pulling out a cell phone. "But we're going to find him anyway. I'll call Seth... you guys go upstairs, Marissa, you should get dressed."

Alex followed Marissa up the stairs, her heart now feeling like it was pounding in her ears. _We've got a lead,_ she thought happily. _This is actually going somewhere... we can do this on our own._

But as soon as she thought '_on our own_' she remembered one more thing she was supposed to be figuring out. Stepping into Marissa's room, she found that her ex girlfriend seemed to be thinking the same thing. She was sitting on the bed, looking at her, not making any move to get changed. She wanted to talk. Alex took a steadying breath, and then crossed the room and sat on the bed next to her. "Hi," she said, not knowing what else to say.

Marissa giggled. "Yeah, hi." She looked down at her feet. "It's good that we found that out; about Jonny, I mean. We'll find him, and this will all be figured out."

Alex nodded. "I guess... we have something else we still have to figure out, though," she said slowly. "Right?"

Marissa looked up, meeting Alex's eyes. "Right," she agreed quietly.

Struggling to find words, Alex swallowed. "So... what happens now?" she managed finally.

Marissa didn't look away, just kept staring Alex right in the eye. "I don't know," she admitted. "I guess... I guess I have to find out who I can't be without." She moved a little closer.

Alex felt like her system was in overdrive. Her heart was thudding so loudly she was surprised Marissa couldn't hear it. She took a shaky breath. "And how are you going to do that?"

Marissa smiled, leaning in closer still. Her eyelids fluttered. "I think you already know," she whispered. Alex smiled as well, closing her eyes, beginning to close the space between them…

And then a voice announced itself from the doorway. A deep voice, and not one either girls were expecting to hear. "So this is why you cancelled," said the voice.

Alex whipped her head around, opening her eyes to see what she already knew. Ryan was standing in Marissa's doorway, his arms crossed, his blue eyes angry, but also hurt. "Ryan," Alex started, wanting to explain, "Wait-"

"No," he said, the hurt very evident in his voice now. He looked at Marissa, and though Alex had never seen him cry, he looked close now. His jaw was fixed, and he spoke with a distinct tremor. "I'm done waiting around. Maybe you'll call me when you've... figured things out." And then he turned on his heel, and left the room.

"Ryan!" called Marissa, getting off the bed and rushing to her door. But Alex heard a slamming sound, and knew Ryan was already gone.

"Marissa," Alex said hesitantly, standing up and walking over to her. She wasn't sure exactly what to do, so she held out a hand, placing it on Marissa's wrist. "I'm sorry."

Marissa turned, and her eyes were shining with tears. "Don't be sorry," she said quietly, moving her hand so it was squeezing Alex's. "It's not your fault." She smiled weakly, and a tear streaked down her cheek. "You're always apologizing when you don't need to."

Alex lifted her free hand to wipe away the tear. "Sorry about that," she said with a smile. She heard the door open downstairs, and voices start to converse; Seth had arrived. She sighed, and released Marissa's hand. "You should get dressed."

Alex started to walk out of the room, but then she felt a pressure on her wrist. Surprised, she turned around, to find Marissa had grabbed it. Wordlessly, she tugged on Alex's arm, pulling her in close. Completely unexpectedly, their lips met for a short, but incredibly sweet moment. Pulling away, Alex saw that Marissa was still smiling. "I just felt like you owed me that," the tall brunette said quietly.

Alex felt dazed from their kiss, but couldn't suppress her own grin. "Anytime," she said. And she walked out of the room, and made her way downstairs, knowing that things had just gotten ten times more complicated, and also that at this moment, she felt as though she couldn't care less.

---


	8. Spill

I know, I know, I've taken a really long time to update. In my defense, I was busy, and I was sad that I only got two reviews.  Also, I was lazy.

Please review!!

***

"Jonny Booth," Seth said, scrunching his eyebrows together as he read the article in the newspaper. "Car thief extraordinaire." He looked up from the paper. "How did the police miss that? Shouldn't they be researching stuff in LA?"

Summer let out a sigh. "And how would they know that this guy was friends with Alex's ex? No, they would have dismissed this; we only caught it because we knew the name."

Seth rolled his eyes, and was promptly hit in the head with a grape Summer threw at him. Something like this usually would have made Marissa laugh. Not right now, though.

They were all sitting in the kitchen, discussing their next move in their investigation on the kidnapping. But Marissa just couldn't concentrate. She couldn't get the memory of Ryan's pained face out of her head. He had looked so hurt... so betrayed. How could she have done that to him? But then she thought of Alex, thought of her smile; and how it felt when they kissed...

She chanced a look across the table. Alex was gazing inattentively at the wall opposite, not looking as though she was paying much attention to the conversation either. Marissa stared at her, studying her every feature. She took in every angle in her face, the exact hue of her eyes, the shape of her lips. Just looking at her, Marissa felt her breathing speed up a little. _How do you do this to me?_ she wondered. And then she felt a shade of possibility creep up on her. _Is it you? _she thought uncertainly. _Are you the one I can't be without?_

Seth's voice interrupted her reverie. "So we'll do it tonight, then," he was saying.

"Do what?" Marissa asked. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alex look up, paying attention now.

Seth cracked his knuckles. "We'll go to LA. We have to continue our investigation, don't we?"

Summer nodded. "Yeah." Then she stood up, and started to pace around the room. "So, we'll go down there, and try and talk to someone about where Jonny might be. Then, when we figure it out, we find him. Hopefully, he's alone, and we can get him to confess to the kidnapping, and rat out that Adam guy."

Alex looked doubtful. "There are a lot of holes in that plan," she pointed out. "How do we find out where he is without people getting suspicious? And how do we convince him to confess, if we do find him?"

Summer waved a hand at her dismissively. "Don't worry, we're good at avoiding suspicion. We get ourselves into trouble too much to be bad at it."

Marissa laughed a bit, remembering. "Once we lost one of the prizes at an auction, and as we were waiting for the guys to bring it back, we stalled the event by auctioning off Summer's shoe."

Alex laughed too. "You're kidding me."

"Unfortunately, she's not," cut in Summer. "But anyway, don't worry about our sneakiness skills. We'll get his whereabouts. And when we find him..." She paused for a moment. "Well, we'll figure that out when we get there."

"Comforting."

Summer shrugged. "Hey, it's a work in progress. But are you in?"

"Of course," said Alex quickly. "I- I just don't want to screw this up."

There was something funny about how she said that. Marissa looked at her, puzzled, but before she could place her finger on it, Alex stood up. "I'm going to get some air," she said quietly. She headed slowly for the back yard.

Summer and Seth didn't seem to notice anything. "We should start planning this out," Seth said, pulling a pen and a pad of paper towards him. "I wonder if we'll need disguises..."

Marissa could see Alex sitting on the top step of the back porch, playing vaguely with a strand of hair. Marissa stood up, and started walking to the back yard as well. "I need some air, too," she said to Summer, who had looked up. "I'll be right back."

Alex didn't look up as Marissa slid open the glass door, and made her way across the deck. As she sat down on the porch next to her, Marissa could see the blonde had her eyes closed. "Hi Marissa," she said softly.

Marissa gave a quiet laugh. "I'm that predictable, huh?"

Alex opened her eyes, and Marissa found herself swimming in a sea of deep blue. "Just a little bit," Alex answered, the corners of her mouth twitching. Then she turned her gaze to her shoes. "That, and I can still hear Seth and Summer bickering inside like fourth graders."

"True," Marissa amended. She too, could hear the faint sounds of her friends arguing amiably from the kitchen. "Should we tell Seth and Summer that Ryan saw us? I don't think they know; he sneaked in and out pretty quickly."

Alex was shaking her head. "No. We've got enough on our hands with this crazy plan in LA."

Marissa stayed silent, staring at Alex and trying to figure out what the expression on her face was. It seemed unsure... vulnerable. Something she didn't often see in her ex girlfriend, to be sure. And then it hit her. "Alex," she said in wonderment. "Alex, you're afraid, aren't you?"

Alex looked up, and Marissa knew at once her suspicions were correct. The fear was well hidden, but it was there, deep in the icy blue of Alex's eyes. The blonde gave a shaky laugh. "Unbelievable, isn't it?"

Marissa paused for a moment. "Well, I can't say it's a common thing for you," she said slowly. "But no, not unbelievable. Everyone gets scared. And we're going up against a guy who stuffed you in the trunk of a car. It's definitely understandable."

Alex was staring blankly ahead, eyes glazed with reminiscence. "I remember something Seth once said to me." Her voice was low, and tinged with something like amusement. "He was trying to set me up with Ryan... and he tried to convince me to go by telling me: 'He enjoys long walks on the beach, punching people, and not smiling.' I asked him if that's how he saw me, and he said: 'Yes, but with less smiling.'" She shook her head, grinning a bit. "I guess I've just built up this tough-girl reputation, and I've never let myself out of it."

"You don't have to do that," said Marissa quietly. "It's okay to let yourself be vulnerable sometimes."

Alex gave her a weak smile. "I know. I may just need some practice, that's all."

Unconsciously, Marissa put her arm around her shoulders. "It's going to be fine," she said soothingly, trying to keep her voice steady in spite of her body's reaction to being so close to Alex. "We'll catch this guy." She smiled. "If Summer's put her mind to it, it'll happen."

Alex laughed. "I think I'm ready to go back inside now."

"Okay." Marissa withdrew her arm, stood up, and headed back toward the kitchen, Alex following her. Re entering the room, they found Seth pouring over a piece of paper. "What's that?" she asked curiously.

Seth looked up, a grin on his face. "Well, I thought we might need disguises."

Marissa walked over to look at the paper, and rolled her eyes when she saw what was on it. Four cartoonish figures were sketched there, wearing various ridiculous outfits. The one that looked like Alex was wearing some sort of army inspired hat. The one that resembled Summer seemed to have a whip. "Seriously, Seth?"

Summer snorted, and snatched up the paper. "No. Definitely not seriously. But we did start thinking about our plan."

Seth nodded. "Right. We're going down to LA today, and we'll look around for any of this Jonny guy's friends or family. We casually try and get some whereabouts. Then, tomorrow, we'll start looking for him."

Alex shrugged, her composure clearly back up. "Simple enough. I like it. When do we leave?"

Summer tapped the counter with her fingers, considering. "In an hour," she decided. "We need to let our parents know where we're going, and we'll need money."

"And lunch," Seth added, looking toward Marissa's fridge.

"Help yourself," Marissa said, smiling.

So as Seth dug into a micro waved plate of leftover pasta, Marissa placed phone calls to everyone's parents telling them to not expect them back until later. Summer ran out quickly to the bank. Alex sat at the table, sneaking bites of pasta off Seth's plate.

An hour later, the four teenagers were piled into Seth's jeep. Alex and Marissa sat in the back, both staring out the window as the car made its way down to Los Angeles. Remembering the last time they had made this trip, Marissa's stomach twisted with emotion. She glanced to her left, and found Alex was looking at her, too. She smiled quickly, and then turned back to the window. Apparently she wasn't the only one thinking about what had happened in the back of Sandy's car.

They made the turn off the highway, and Marissa saw the sign welcoming them to Los Angeles. Summer twisted around in her seat, looking at Alex. "So," she said, brushing her dark hair out of her eyes. "Any ideas? Where should we be headed?"

Alex bit her lip for a moment. Then, "Try downtown, but stay on the dirty looking streets. Friends of Jonny Booth don't go shopping anywhere more expensive than Walmart."

Summer wrinkled her nose as she turned back around to face the front. "Ew," she said, predictably.

_'Ew,' is right,_ thought Marissa vaguely as Seth turned the car onto an extremely shabby looking street. It was lined with stores, but they looked very unfinished and crude. The windows were unsettlingly dark, and some doors were boarded up.

"Welcome home," mumbled Alex.

They circled for a while before Alex pointed at a dingy store at the end of the street. "It's a coffee shop," she explained as Seth squinted at the window. "And if none of Jonny's buddies are in there, I'll wear that ridiculous hat Seth drew."

But her vow was unnecessary. As soon as they entered the smoky smelling coffee shop, Marissa felt Alex tense beside her. "In the corner," the blonde muttered when Marissa touched her wrist. "The one with the gelled hair, and the grimy one."

Looking over, Marissa saw the young men in question immediately. They both looked to be about twenty five, and were smoking cigarettes over two cups of coffee. One of the men had bleached blonde hair gelled crudely up in spikes, with narrowed, beady eyes. He was very thin, wearing a tattered, dirty vest and jeans. But he was nowhere near as dirty as his companion. The second man's hair, skin and clothes were so covered with an unpleasant layer of filth that it was difficult to make out what he looked like at all. He coughed thickly into a mucky handkerchief. Watching him, Marissa wrinkled her nose. Grimy, indeed.

"Let's see if we can overhear their conversation," whispered Summer into Marissa's ear, as she and Seth entered the shop. "Get in the back of the line... it's close to where they're sitting."

So they made the way to the back of the line, trying to ignore the stares of some of the occupants of the shop. All four teenagers were wearing clean, well fitting clothing, and in Summer's case, designer shoes. A middle aged man with a unkept beard gave Marissa a long stare, and she felt Alex move protectively next to her. Despite feeling a little scared, Marissa also felt a warmth in her chest as Alex's shoulder pressed against hers.

Once they were at the back of the line, they found that they could indeed hear the conversation the two men were having. Marissa strained her ears to listen.

"There's no question about it," the bleached blonde was saying in a dangerously soft and clipped voice. "We're going to find out what that scum bag did with that money."

"We've tried a million times," whined the grimy man, his voice high and wheezy. "He's just a dirty little weasel, the money's gone."

"Idiot," replied the blonde curtly. "If he's spent the money, we'll just make him pay it back. And you're a dirtier weasel than bloody Booth is. Maybe you should shower, once in a while."

Marissa saw Summer and Seth exchange a meaningful look, and heard Alex grind her teeth. Booth? Was it possible the men were talking about the same person they were trying to find? Marissa listened harder.

Another thick cough came from the dirty man. "Well, if I'm a weasel, at least I'm not tactless." There was a sound of an empty cup being set on the table. "We can't just go over to his house and demand payment."

"And why not?" demanded the first man. "What's stopping you, huh, Billy? You scared of his little old mum?"

Billy snorted. "Hardly. No, they just have no money. Didn't you hear? Booth's damn older brother violated his parole. They paid all their money bailing him out." There was a pause as he took a drag of his cigarette. "Stupid, really, since they haven't even found him yet."

"Jonny's split again?" The blonde let out a low whistle. "Now there's an idiot."

"Well, yeah."

The two men fell silent, and the four eavesdroppers looked at each other. So the men weren't talking about Jonny, they were talking about his younger brother. Seth and Summer looked kind of deflated, but Alex looked purposeful, for some strange reason. And before Marissa could ask her what was up, Alex walked right up to the two men.

"Hey- Billy, Darren. Where have you two been?"

Marissa's heart was beating like a rabbits'. What on earth did Alex think she was doing? How could she just go up to these people? But as she moved to pull her ex girlfriend's wrist back over to the line, Summer caught her shoulder. "Wait," whispered the tiny brunnette. "Let's see what she's up to."

Billy and Darren both looked up, and their eyes widened. Darren made a small sound of surprise. "Kelly? Goddamn, where have _you_ been, kid?"

Alex shrugged nonchalantly. "I've been around," she said evasively. Then she cocked her head to the side. "Were you just talking about Jonny Booth? I heard you from the line."

Billy nodded. "He's gone and run away again. Didn't you know? I thought he and your man were tight."

Even from over her shoulder, Marissa could see Alex tense. "He's not my man anymore," she said flatly. "He broke up with me when he got busted for meth."

Darren raised an eyebrow. "He got busted? I didn't even hear."

"Me neither," added Billy. "He dropped you when he got thrown in prison? That's cold."

Alex shrugged again. "Well, it's not like I'd see him much, if he's behind bars." She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, and quickly changed the subject. "But again, what about Jonny? Have you heard from him since he split?"

Billy coughed again into his dirty handkerchief. "No, nothing. But I was never really close with him, you know, I was kind of a hanger on."

Darren snorted. "Too right you were," he said, taking a long drag on his cigarette. Then he looked back at Alex. "I was closer with him, but naw, I haven't heard from him. Why don't you go check with his sneak of a brother?"

Alex dragged a hand through her hair. "Um, alright," she said airily. "Where do they live, anyway?"

Darren dug through his pockets, and pulled out a pen. He snatched a napkin from the dispenser on the table, and scribbled an address on it. "Not exactly a mansion," he said, handing it over to Alex. "But they've got a fully stocked fridge. Worth a visit." He grinned, his cigarette dangling out of his mouth. "Say hi to little Booth for me."

"Done," said Alex, stuffing the napkin into her pocket. "Thanks, Darren."

"No problem, Kelly."

Alex turned around, and with a self satisfied smile on her face, made her way to the door, catching Marissa's eye on the way. She, Seth and Summer followed her out, despite Seth's protests that he wanted a donut. When they got out on the sidewalk, Summer gave Alex an impressed look. "That was pretty good," she said approvingly. "You know what you're doing, huh?"

Alex shrugged, still grinning a bit. "I do what I can."

"It was amazing," Marissa murmured, looking Alex in the eye. She saw the blonde's smile twist into something else, a look of such undivided intensity that she could swear she felt her heart flutter. "You were really good," she added, her voice sounding as though her throat was coated with something sticky.

If either Seth or Summer noticed the tension, they didn't let on. "Can I see that napkin?" Seth asked Alex, eyeing her pocket. When she handed it to him, he squinted at the messy handwriting, and read it aloud. "3865 Accets Drive. That shouldn't be too hard; I think we passed Accets on the way here. Come on, let's get back to the car."

"No arguments from me," muttered Summer, who was clearly thinking more about the welfare of her shoes than anything else.

So Marissa followed Seth and Summer back to the car, walking carefully to avoid stepping in damp patches on the sidewalk, and every so often, sneaking glances at Alex. The blonde girl moved comfortably along the shabby street, managing somehow to fit in seamlessly with the coarse looking people shuffling along the road, and also to look absolutely beautiful. Marissa couldn't believe how anyone could ever look away from her. A tiny presence inside her nudged at her heart. _You can't look away from her? _whispered the voice. _Could you ever be away from her? Could you live without her?_

But before Marissa could really think about this pressing question, they had arrived at the car. She slipped into the back seat, managing to arrange her face in a somewhat composured expression. Seth started the engine and pulled out of the parking spot, Summer expressing her relief to be out of the shopping district with an enthusiasm to rival her love of chick flicks.

However, if Summer thought they were headed out of the slums, she had another thing coming. Looking out the window as they pulled onto Accets Drive, Marissa cringed. The houses could hardly be classified as houses; they were more along the lines of shacks. Garbage cans piled up at the curbs, although they were thoroughly outnumbered by the empty beer bottles. "The Booths aren't very well off," explained Alex unnecessarily.

"Ew," said Summer again.

Seth squinted at the faded numbers printed on the houses. "That's 3861... 3863..." he mumbled, and then pulled to a stop by the curb. "...And 3865." He twisted around in his seat to face Alex. "I'm going in... are you up for it?"

Alex rolled her eyes. "I'm not some little kid," she answered, unbuckling her seatbelt. "I'm coming."

It was easy for Seth to miss the vulnerable flash that shone briefly in Alex's eyes. But not for Marissa. She unbuckled her belt as well. "I'm coming too," she said firmly.

Summer stared at her from the passenger seat, wide eyed. "Are you serious, Marissa?" she asked, her voice much higher than usual. "That place has 'murder' written all over it." Her eyes flashed to Alex. "No offense."

Alex shrugged, a small smile on her face. "None taken."

Marissa was already out of the car, her mind made up. No way was Alex going in that house without her. "I'll be right back," she told Summer through her window. And then she turned to Seth and Alex, who both had exited the car as well. "Well, do we have a plan?"

Seth blinked, and didn't say anything. Marissa took that for a no, and looked to Alex. The blonde rubbed the back of her neck, looking thoughtful. "Well," she said slowly. "That depends."

"On what?"

Alex shrugged. "Well, if it's just Jonny's mom in there, I don't think we'll get very far. She's not really close with her kids, and I don't know her well. But if his kid brother's there... I mean, Jon told his brother everything. And-" She blushed a bit. "-Shaun's always had a bit of a crush on me. If he's there, and he knows anything, he'll spill."

Seth was smiling. "No one can resist you, can they?"

"Oh shut up," said Alex, sauntering up the driveway to the house's faded green door. Seth and Marissa followed, and as Seth hopped up on the front step, Alex knocked three times, hard.

For a moment Marissa thought, (and somewhat hoped), that there would be no answer. However, after about twenty seconds, the door swung open, revealing a boy of about sixteen. He had very dirty blonde hair, shrewd features, and murky green eyes. He was wearing a thin, white cotton shirt, and a pair of blue jeans ripped at the knees. He was very skinny, giving an impression of someone who only had a real meal every once in while. A distinct tough air emanated from him, but as soon as he saw Alex standing there, his pinched face broke out into a wide grin. "Kelly!" he exclaimed, stepping back from the doorway in surprise. "No way!"

Alex grinned as well. "Hey, baby Booth."

With a bark of laughter, Shaun Booth beckoned them all inside, chattering incessantly, obviously asking Alex every question he could think of. Marissa noticed that although he briefly nodded toward Seth and herself, he didn't take much notice of them. He had eyes only for Alex. Although Marissa might have taken offense to this on another occasion, here she understood. Shaun wasn't the only one who couldn't take his eyes off of Alex.

He led them all into the living room, and sat them in chairs. Throwing himself onto a flea bitten couch near Alex, he motioned absentmindedly to an armchair in the corner. "Do you remember my mum, Kelly?"

Marissa jumped. Before the boy had pointed her out, she hadn't noticed the armchair had an occupant. But there was someone there; a thirty something woman holding a half empty beer bottle. If Marissa had thought Shaun appeared underfed, he was nothing compared to his mother. The woman with the flyaway mousy brown hair was thinner than anyone Marissa had ever seen. Her clothes hung off her like loose skin and she had deep, purple circles under her bulging eyes. She took a swig of her beer, and turned her haunting gaze to Alex. "I remember you," she said, her weak voice incredibly soft, barely more than a whisper. "You came to visit Jonathan."

Alex nodded. Marissa could see from her face she was uncomfortable. "Nice to see you again, Mrs. Booth."

Shaun spoke up again, his young voice full of excitement. "So, Kelly, what're you doing here? Are you back in town? I haven't seen you in forever."

Alex's eyes flickered to glance briefly at Seth and Marissa. Then she turned her gaze back to Shaun. "Not exactly," she started slowly. "My friends here... they need some help. And, well, I was hoping to maybe talk to your brother."

The atmosphere thickened so quickly Marissa could have sworn she felt it pass over her. While Shaun merely stiffened up, his mother sat up in her armchair, her head balancing precariously on her feeble shoulders. "Jonathan's not here," she whispered sharply.

"I know," said Alex quickly, clearly trying to ease the tension in the room. "I was just- I wanted to-"

But Mrs. Booth wouldn't be eased. "You should go now," she said, her faint voice seeming somehow heated and powerful. "It was nice of you to come."

The dismissal was impossible to ignore. Alex stood up, and then so did Seth and Marissa. Mrs. Booth took another swig of her beer. "Shaun will show you out."

Marissa felt extremely disheartened. It was clear Jonny's departure was a forbidden topic, but they needed information so badly. She glanced at Alex quickly as they followed Shaun to the door. Should they try again? Turn around and go back to the living room? But Alex just gave a small shake of her head. Marissa felt herself deflate a little. They were giving up.

But when they made it to the doorway, and stepped out of the threshold, Shaun didn't close the door behind them. Instead, he left it open a crack, and peered out at Alex, his thin face serious. "I don't know why you need to talk to my brother," he whispered, murky brown eyes flashing. "But I know you would never ask me if you didn't really need help." He gave a weak smile. "My mum doesn't know this, but he calls me sometimes. The number's 616-873-2390. Now, get out of here Kelly." And he flashed one last grin, and closed the door.

Alex turned around to face Seth, grinning quite a bit herself. "I told you he'd spill."

***


	9. Choose

"You know," said Alex, a grin spreading lazily across her face, "The thing about a surprise party is that it's supposed to be a surprise."

"Pfft," answered Summer dismissively as she spun in front of her mirror one more time. "Surprises are overrated, you know. How am I supposed to enjoy myself at a party if I haven't had the chance to pick out a suitable outfit? Not to mention what could have happened if I hadn't had my way with the guest list."

Alex shook her head in amazement. She was standing in Summer's bedroom doorway, watching the tiny brunnette try on, and turn aside, almost every combination of clothes in her fully stocked closet. "Well," she said after a pause, "You'd better decide on an outfit soon or you're going to miss the party."

Summer shot her a glare. "You know perfectly well the party's not til tonight."

Still grinning, Alex turned and started to make her way down the hallway. "I do," she called back over her shoulder. "But you shouldn't!"

Summer's voice followed her down the stairs. "Not too late to uninvite you!"

As Alex entered the kitchen, Seth handed her a cup of coffee, his boyish brown eyes twinkling. "So, how's the outfit hunting?"

Alex rolled her eyes. "What time is it, 11:30? She should be ready... about next Tuesday?"

Hearing a light laugh from the kitchen table, Alex turned to see Marissa sitting there, flipping through a magazine. Their eyes met, and Alex saw a flush rise in the brunnette's cheeks. "Hey," she said, smiling quickly. "I just got here."

"Yeah," replied Alex, smiling back. She saw the redness in Marissa's cheeks strengthen a bit. _I'm doing that, _she thought incredulously. _She's blushing because of me. _Her heart beat a pleasant sort of drum against her ribs.

"Okay," said Seth, who had turned around to face the back door. There was a flurry of movement in the back yard as the preparations for Summer's party begun. Seth looked mildly nauseated just looking at some of the heavy lifting. "Should we, uh, help out?"

Alex snickered. "You shouldn't," she said, sipping her coffee. "I've seen you do manual labour. Not pretty."

Seth stuck out his tongue at her. "Very funny." He gazed into the hallway, his eyes flashing to the stairs. "Maybe Summer needs some help with her outfit. I have an excellent sense of style, you know."

Marissa grinned at Alex behind Seth's back. "Yeah, good idea. She'll really appreciate that."

Seth was already walking out of the kitchen. "I know you're being sarcastic," he called over his shoulder. "But it doesn't mean I'm not going up there."

As Seth's footsteps faded, Marissa shrugged at Alex, still grinning. "I tried to warn him. No one has ever tried to help Summer pick an outfit and lived to tell the tale."

Alex laughed. "I know, I've been staying in her room. It's like a battle field."

Marissa tossed her magazine aside with a chuckle. "More like a war zone. You never know when she'll go into one of her fashion induced rages."

"I know!" exclaimed Alex, sitting down at the table. "Yesterday I moved one pair of flats off the bed and she almost decapitated me!"

"You touched her shoes?" asked Marissa with a raised eyebrow. "I'm surprised you're still breathing."

Alex shrugged, smiling. "What can I say? I'm not an easy person to assassinate."

The phrase hung awkwardly in the air for a moment. Then Marissa sighed. "What are we going to do?"

Alex paused for a moment. "What do you mean, exactly?"

"I mean, we're getting closer and closer to finding who _actually_ tried to hurt you," Marissa said quietly. "And... I'm terrified."

Alex got up and moved to the chair next to Marissa, looking straight into her eyes. "If you're scared, you don't have to come today. You can stay here and help out with the party, nobody's judging you."

Marissa rolled her eyes. "I'm not scared for myself, you idiot." She took a shaky breath, and Alex felt a warm hand on her thigh. "I'm scared for _you_."

"Oh," said Alex, somewhat lamely. She was temporarily lost for words, just sitting there and staring into Marissa's concerned gaze. Swallowing carefully, she found her voice. "Marissa, you don't need to be scared for me... I'll be fine, honestly."

Marissa made a disbelieving sound, and raised an eyebrow. "I thought we went through this already... you don't need to put up that front with me." She smiled weakly. "I'm not going to judge you for being afraid of someone who wants to kill you."

Alex gave a small laugh. "It sounds so stupid when you say it like that." She paused, trying to find the right words. "But really, I'm okay. I've been thinking a lot about what we're planning to do today, and it's weird, but I feel more... determined than anything else."

"Determined?" repeated Marissa thoughtfully. "Maybe angry?"

Thinking about it, Alex thought it made sense. "Yeah... maybe."

Marissa smiled again. "Well that's also very reasonable. I'm sure being stuffed in the back of someone's car would aggravate me a little bit as well."

There was a sudden sharp tapping sound from behind them, and both girls turned to see a frustrated looking party planner holding a clipboard and rapping on the glass door with his fist. Marissa sighed. "Looks like the 'help' needs a little help. You up for some heavy lifting?"

Alex grinned. "More than Seth is, that's for sure." She watched Marissa get up from her chair and start to move toward the back door. "Wait... Marissa?"

The brunette turned, her eyes searching Alex's. "Yeah?"

Standing up as well, Alex swallowed. "Thank you. For helping me talk about this. I know I wouldn't be able to with anyone else."

A warm smile spread over Marissa's face, along with the now familiar flush of red. "You know I'm always here for you," she said quietly.

Alex's heart fluttered in her chest. "I know," she replied seriously. She inclined her head toward the back yard. "Come on, let's go move some water features."

Marissa rolled her eyes. "Water features. Honestly, in her past life, Summer must have been a pampered dictator."

Laughing, they headed out into the sunny morning, much to the relief of the confused party planners. After about an hour and a half of directing, lifting, and pained explanations, the hired workers seemed to have enough to go on with. Pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes, Alex stared longingly at the kitchen. Interpreting her gaze perfectly, Marissa grinned. "You up for lunch?"

Alex smiled gratefully. "Very much." She bent down to place a tape measure on the ground, and straightened up again to see Marissa had moved closer. Her breath suddenly came much harder. "Hello," she said slowly.

The edge of Marissa's mouth turned up in a small half smile. "Hello," she replied. Then she slid her hand into Alex's, and started pulling her toward the house. "Come on, lunch is calling."

Feeling slightly bewildered, but very pleasantly so, Alex followed her lead, crossing the yard toward the back door of the kitchen. The feeling of the warm hand in hers seemed to be magnified beyond anything else. Reaching the door, she saw that Seth had already returned from what must have been an ill fated mission to help Summer with her outfit, and was sitting at the table with a sandwich. Marissa reached for the door handle, but Alex held her back. The brunnette turned, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you were hungry?"

Alex smiled. "Lunch can wait a second." Then she looked down at their entwined fingers, and back at Marissa. She raised her own eyebrow. "I was just wondering... We haven't really talked about, you know, what happened. And I realize I have no idea -really no idea- about what's happening now."

Marissa let out a slow breath. "Okay," she said slowly. "I guess lunch is going to wait a bit." She nodded toward a couple of chairs on the patio.

"Good idea," replied Alex, going to sit down. Marissa joined her, crossing her legs, her deep brown eyes poring into Alex's. Then she sighed.

"The truth is," she began, "I've been going over this in my head over and over again for the past twenty four hours." She smiled weakly. "It's really not getting much clearer."

Alex nodded slowly. "So... what does that mean?"

Marissa ran a hand through her hair, and closed her eyes. "I- don't know, exactly. I mean, I'm sure of a couple of things, I just don't know what they mean. I know I care about Ryan." She opened her eyes. "And I know I care about you. A lot."

Looking into her eyes, and remembering what it felt like to hold her hand, to be with her, Alex felt a burst of longing. For the past few days, she had been convincing herself over and over that Marissa would never choose her, that she had a boyfriend, that she was off limits. But now, she just couldn't help herself. She sat up straighter. "Okay," she said firmly.

Marissa frowned, a crease of confusion wrinkling her forehead. "Okay?"

"Okay," Alex repeated. She leaned forward a bit. "Listen, I know that this is hard for you. You have two people you care about, who care about you... a lot." She gave a small smile, then continued. "But even though I really don't want to make things more difficult for you, I have to let you know what I want."

Marissa leaned forward as well, staring intently at Alex. "I'm listening."

Alex took a deep breath. "Marissa, I really like you. And I miss you. And I know you have to choose between me and Ryan, and that you're torn." She slipped her hand back into Marissa's, and stared her straight in the eye. "I want you to pick me."

Marissa's eyes widened, and her lips parted a bit. "Oh," she replied after a moment, her voice a whisper.

"I'm sorry if I'm complicating your life even more," continued Alex simply. Then she smiled wryly. "But it's just... that's how I feel, and I had to say it."

The corners of Marissa's mouth twitched. "You know you're very convincing when you quote me like that."

Alex shrugged, her eyes still poring into Marissa's. Her heat thudded in her chest, but her hand, still holding Marissa's, was steady. "Convincing enough for you?" she asked quietly. She watched as the brunette swallowed slowly. Then she opened her mouth to speak.

"Hey guys!" Both girls started as Seth's voice called from the sliding door, and Alex dropped Marissa's hand. "Grab your stuff," the lanky boy continued. "We're going to L.A." He slid the door shut.

Alex looked back at Marissa. She was annoyed by the interruption, but she could feel herself processing what Seth had said, as well. ``Oh God," she breathed, ``We`re going now."

Marissa nodded. ``Listen," she said. ``I know it`s important to you to talk about us. But we need to do this." Her eyes were blazing. ``We need to find whoever hurt you."

Alex stood. As much as she needed to continue the conversation they had been having, it was also beginning to sink in that the whole kidnapping debacle could be over soon. And that would leave them with plenty of time to talk. She took a deep breath. ``Okay. Let`s do this."


	10. Protect

Ooh, another update! I must admit, I am proud that I wrote such a long chapter in less than a week. Plus this one is pretty monumental. Can you guys handle it?

(If you can't, review! If you can, review as well.)

Marissa stepped into the kitchen, and looked urgently at Seth. "So? You finally got a lead on Booth?"

The lanky boy nodded, looking excited. "I gave my dad the cell number, and he talked to some of his friends. Apparently it's been accessing a tower in Jackson's Square."

"Jackson's Square?" said Alex thoughtfully, as she sat down at the table next to Summer and Seth. "I know where that is, it's actually quite close to where I used to live."

"Typical," chimed in Summer, shaking her head. "He could go anywhere, but instead he's hiding out a block away from his mummy. Some tough guy."

"This isn't exactly a joke, Sum," Marissa snapped, without thinking. "This guy is capable of murder."

The tiny brunette jumped a little, and then spoke slowly, looking cautious and a little flustered. "Sorry, I know... I didn't mean anything by it, okay? I know we have to take this seriously."

Marissa took a deep breath. "It's okay, I'm sorry too. I guess I'm just a little nervous about this whole thing." She glanced sideways at Alex. If anything happened to her, it would be completely devastating. She thought back to what Alex had asked her earlier on the porch. With every second they spent together, Marissa knew she was falling harder and harder for the rebellious blonde. But then there was Ryan... four days ago, she was trying so hard to avoid breaking up with him for her. Now, she wasn't so sure. She sighed inwardly. She just couldn't make a decision. _Who can't I live without?_

Seth stood, breaking Marissa out of her reverie. "I think we're all a little freaked out," he said, looking around the room. "I mean, this is superhero stuff we're doing here, I think. Spiderman calibre at least, if not X-men."

Summer sighed. "Cohen, does everything you do require a metaphor to something from a comic book?"

Seth grinned. "Yep. But seriously," he looked at Marissa. "We have a plan. We've thought stuff out. And we're not gonna let anyone get hurt." His gaze turned to Alex. "'Specially you. We didn't pull you out of that trunk for nothing, you know."

Alex smiled. "You're a really good guy, Seth. I may even consider promoting your maturity level to age twelve."

"Awesome," said Seth, giving a fist pump while Summer laughed. Then he turned for the door. "Okay, well everything's ready. Let's go, we'll go over the plan again in the car." He and Summer grabbed backpacks and headed out of the kitchen, with Alex and Marissa following them.

"Hey," said Marissa quietly as they stepped outside. She stopped on the front steps. "You've been quiet, you okay?"

Alex smiled weakly. "I'm okay. I'm just... I want this to be over."

Marissa looked her in the eyes, searchingly. "I want you to know something. Seth told you already we're not going to let anyone hurt you. And I'm going to take that one step further." She grasped Alex's hand. "I'm going to do anything I can to protect you."

The blonde's smile grew. "You know, I never thought I'd see the day where _you_ would be protecting _me_."

Marissa smiled too. "Hey, I can be badass too."

"Oh, so very badass," Alex laughed. "C'mon, the car's waiting. Let's do this."

The car ride was silent for the most part, except for the sound of Seth going over the plan one more time, handing everyone various items from the two backpacks, and detailing bits anyone was unsure about. Summer, who was driving, kept her eyes on the road, her tight grip on the steering wheel the only indication of nerves. Marissa spent the ride nodding at Seth whenever there was a pause in his recitation. Mostly though, she spent it sneaking sideways glances at Alex.

The blonde gazed out her window, cool blue eyes unfocused. Her right hand kept a steady 'tap tap tap' on the door's arm rest. Her jaw was set, and Marissa could see she was psyching herself up. She also couldn't help thinking again and again how beautiful she was. How could anyone resist kissing those lips? Running fingers through that hair? Marissa shook herself mentally. '_Focus,'_ she thought fervently. '_You're about to dive head first into dealings with a would-be murderer. This is no time to be drooling over Alex.' _

"Marissa?"

She jerked her head toward the front seat. "Oh, sorry, I zoned out. What did you say, Seth?"

"It's about Phase Two," the dark haired boy repeated, "Now, as everyone knows, Phase One will give us a good chance of apprehending Booth, but without a clean connection to Adam..." He shrugged sadly.

Summer chimed in from the driver's seat. "Cohen's right. Phase Two's freaking vital, and we can't afford for it to go wrong because we didn't cover our asses."

Alex's head turned, her eyes clear and focused again. "Don't worry about it, okay?" she said, her voice firm. "I'm good for it. I'm the only one who can do this, and I can pull it off." Her eyes flickered toward Marissa. "I don't need more help."

Marissa felt a jolt of warmth, followed by a chill. _'She's trying to protect me,'_ she realized. _'But she's putting herself in even more danger to do it...'_

Summer sighed. "We knew you'd take it this way." Marissa could see her friend's dark brown eyes flash towards Alex in the rear view mirror. "But come on, you have to understand. Marissa can help you with this, and it'll be at pretty much no risk."

Alex made a small noise of dissent. "Pretty much?" she repeated, glaring.

But Marissa had had enough. "Alex," she said firmly, taking her hand. She could feel the blonde jump a little from the contact. Their eyes locked, and Marissa marveled at how simple everything suddenly was. She knew exactly how Alex felt, but also knew exactly what to say to get her to see reason. She spoke again, her voice softened. "I thought you were going to let me help protect you for a change?"

Alex gave a small grin. "Oops. I guess these things are kind of unnatural for me." Her face shifted to a more serious expression. "Okay. You can help. But please, please, be careful."

Marissa spoke quietly. "I promise." Alex smiled weakly.

"Good," said Seth. He tossed something back to Marissa. "You know what to do?"

Marissa looked at the object she'd been given, and then back at Seth, her jaw set. "I've got a pretty good idea."

"Well that's good," remarked Summer. The car slowed, and pulled over to the side of the road. They were on a secluded street, and were parked in front of a house with dark windows. "Because we're here."

Seth looked wildly out the window. "Geez, already?" He pulled at his collar, and turned back to Summer. "You're sure this is it?"

Summer rolled her eyes. "I double and triple checked with your dad. He and his connections looked into every residence in the area. This one checks out. There's been hydro and gas usage, but it's on an old payment, there's been no recorded owner for two months. Someone's squatting here."

Seth made a face. "The government freaks me out sometimes."

"Well in this case, they came in handy, so you can stop complaining." Summer grabbed her backpack, and turned around to face Alex. "Phase One?"

Alex unbuckled her seatbelt, eyes blazing. "You know it."

Both girls opened their doors, and then both had their wrists grabbed. "Be careful," said Seth and Marissa in unison.

Summer smiled and kissed Seth on the cheek, whispering something in his ear. Alex winked at Marissa. "I promise," she said softly. And then they were gone, running off into the shadows behind a hedge next to the house.

Marissa's stomach twisted into a knot as she watched Alex disappear. "I guess Summer needs to change?"

She saw Seth nod from the front seat, his gaze fixed on the hedge as well. "Disguises are key," he said quietly. His voice was steady, but Marissa could hear the uneasiness.

There was silence for a few minutes, as Marissa stared out the window and Seth opened his backpack and removed a laptop, microphone, speaker and a walkie talkie. He booted up the laptop and opened a few programs. Watching over his shoulder, Marissa spoke up. "Sure you know what you're doing with all of that? If we mess up with the techno stuff we're screwed."

Seth snorted. "I wasn't referred to as 'Super Dork' for eight years for nothing. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

Finally, two figures emerged from behind the hedge. One was wearing a backpack and had a high definition digital camera around her neck. She quickly disappeared into some smaller bushes up against the edge of the house. The other held a clipboard, and started walking up the driveway to the door. Marissa couldn't help but laugh a bit at what she was wearing. Summer was dressed in a tiny black tube top and black pumps, with her dark hair pulled up in an elabourate bun at the top of her head. She had huge hoop earrings and was wearing a very, very short red leather skirt. "Your girlfriend looks like a hooker."

"Well, it's very important to the plan."

Marissa was a bit skeptical. "And this look is really going to get Booth to come out?"

Seth exhaled. He looked very nervous, and his gaze was locked on Summer, who had just knocked on the door. "According to Alex, 'this look' is his type. I just hope she's right. Speaking of which..." He flicked on his walkie talkie. "Barracuda, come in."

Alex's voice, distorted by static, answered. "Seth, we're not using the code names."

"Okay, okay," the lanky boy conceded. "Everything set up?"

"Ready to go. All we need now is our boy."

Marissa bit her lip. She felt so helpless sitting in the back of the car. Alex was out there, exposed. Wasn't she supposed to be protecting her? She took a deep breath. '_Relax,'_she told herself._ 'Wait for Phase Two. You can help then.'_

Seth's voice broke her stupor. "Heeeeere's Jonny," he breathed.

Marissa jerked her gaze back to the doorway. Sure enough, Summer was no longer alone on the stoop. She could see her friend gesture with the clipboard, and hold out a pen. Marissa bit her lip again. If Booth didn't buy the whole 'petition' thing...

But she had nothing to worry about. Not only did he buy it, he stepped out onto the porch with Summer, smiling at her. He held his hand out for the pen.

"Yessss," hissed Seth. He fumbled for the walkie talkie. "Did you get the shot? He's out in the light, take the shot!"

There was silence for a moment, but it seemed like an eternity. And then Alex's voice crackled through the speaker. "I got it. Full face, high detail. I'm sending it to you now."

"Yessss," repeated Seth. A quiet 'ding' sounded from his computer. "I've got mail," he remarked. He bent over the keyboard and typed furiously. Then he lifted his fingers from the keys and sat back, looking satisfied. "And now, so does the Los Angeles Police Department." He twisted in his seat to look at Marissa, and pressed his thumb down on the walkie talkie again so Alex could hear too. "Okay, I'd say we have about fifteen minutes before they can ID the picture to Booth, and get over here. Before they do, we_need_ to get that confession out of him, and recorded."

"Hidden mic is set up and ready to go," Alex's static filled voice said.

"Good," continued Seth. "Unfortunately, if Booth sees that mic, or realizes our plan-"

"I know," Marissa said impatiently. Her heart was pounding in her chest. "I know what I'm doing. Just give me my talkie already."

Seth stared at her for a moment, and then tossed her a third walkie talkie. They both jumped as the driver's door opened, and Summer re-entered the car. She looked at Seth. "Did you send the picture?"

When her boyfriend nodded, the tiny brunette looked into the back seat at Marissa. "Phase One complete. Time for Phase Two." She smiled encouragingly. "Good luck Coop. You can do it."

Marissa left the car, closing the door carefully behind her. Booth had long re-entered the house, and she was fairly confident he wasn't looking out the windows. She quickly made her way over to the bushes where she knew Alex was. Kneeling down, she saw blonde hair. She smiled as blue eyes met hers. "Good job on the picture."

Alex smiled back. She had put the camera in the backpack, and stashed it in the bushes. They wouldn't need it now. "Thanks." The blonde held a hand out, and squeezed Marissa's. Her eyes shifted to a look of determination. "I'm going to go now."

Marissa nodded, the knot in her stomach tightening. She struggled to speak; the combination of nerves and Alex's hand in hers seemed to be blocking her throat. "I'm right behind you," she managed finally.

Blue eyes blazed. "I know." Suddenly there were warm lips on hers, and for a very brief moment it felt like Marissa's brain had just shut down out of pure happiness. Then Alex pulled back, stared her right in the eye. "I love you." And she was gone, running up the front steps to the door. She knocked three times.

Marissa felt like her entire world had just combusted in some grand and wonderful explosion, but with some effort, she pushed it all aside. She had a job to do. She knelt in the bushes, rigid with expectation as she waited for the door to open. And then it did.

It all happened so fast. As soon as she was face to face with Booth, Alex put up both her hands. Marissa saw her mouth move._"I'm here to talk."_

There was the tiniest pause. Marissa imagined all of their hearts; hers, Seth's, Summer's and Alex's, stopped and suspended, waiting to see what Booth would do. If he flipped out and killed her now... Marissa was too far away from the door to do anything. Seth and Summer were helpless, sitting in the car.

But Booth did exactly what they had predicted. He moved backward, ushering Alex inside, his eyes visibly frightened even from a distance. He was freaking out, and so he was careless. As he went with Alex into his house, he left the door ajar by about an inch.

It was all Marissa needed. She waited a split second, then rushed up the steps, staying low and doing her best to be quiet. Praying that Booth wasn't facing the door, she sneaked inside. It was very dark in the hallway, and her eyes took a moment to adjust. Then she heard a male voice, coming from the first room to her left. "I don't understand," it said, shakingly. "You're supposed to- I thought-"

"You thought I was dead." This voice was Alex's. Marissa's heart skipped a beat, and very quietly, she moved to the room in question. The door was open only a sliver, but it was enough to see. She crouched by the doorframe, and looked into the room. Booth was sitting in a chair with his back to her. Alex was standing with her arms crossed, staring at him. She was wearing an icy expression, and her voice was just as cold. "And for good reason, I suppose. You did leave me in the trunk of a car to die."

Marissa could see Booth's grip on the seat of his chair tighten. "I don't know what you're talking about." His voice had a distinct tremor.

"Don't give me that shit," Alex retorted bitingly. "I can put two and two together, Jonny. My idiot ex-boyfriend thinks I got him busted. He needs someone to steal a car and deal with me. Right in the middle of all this, you flake out on your parole and disappear. How stupid do you think I am?"

Booth's voice gained a little strength. "Geez Kelly, you really have gone off the deep end. Why would I try and kill you?"

Marissa felt her heart sink. Booth wasn't admitting anything... Could Alex get the truth out of him in time? What would happen if she couldn't? She checked her watch. It had been ten minutes since Seth had sent the email to the LAPD. _Come on, Alex!_

There was silence in the room. Alex's eyes were still blazing, but Marissa could see a sliver of panic etched in the lines of her face. Obviously, Booth could see it too. He spoke up, with a new confident undertone to his voice. "Seriously, Kelly," he drawled. "I know you and your boy had some trouble, but I'm your buddy. And there's no way I would leave you at the side of the road in goddamn Orange County."

_Click._ There was an almost audible change, a switching of power. Marissa could feel the room's atmosphere crackle with the electricity of it. And at first she didn't even know what was going on. But all she needed to know she found in Alex's sudden triumphant smile. The blonde shifted her weight to her left foot, and cocked her head at the young man seated in the chair in front of her. "Oh really?" she said, her voice a near whisper. "Because I also think that any 'buddy' of mine would cover his ass better." She shot him a look that made a shiver run done Marissa's spine. "I don't think I mentioned Orange County, Jonny."

Booth's shoulders slumped like air being let out of a balloon. "I- I-"

"Save it," spat Alex. "You're done. You tried to kill me, on the orders of that tweaked out asshole. Since when do you jump at Adam's every word?"

"You don't get it, he said you ratted him out-"

That was all they needed. Marissa felt as if a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. She knew Alex's mic would record everything Booth said, and he had just admitted his own involvement in the kidnapping as well as Adam's. The mic was transferring live to Seth, so he could save and send all audio as soon as it was spoken. She checked her watch. Thirteen minutes. Almost perfect timing. They were going to pull this off!

But then their luck ran out. In some catastrophic twist of fate, Alex's microphone wire snagged on her jacket sleeve as she lifted her arm. The cord dragged the mic out of her front pocket, and although she tried her best to hide it quickly, she wasn't quick enough. Booth stopped explaining himself immediately and stood up.

"You fucking bitch."

Alex stared him down, her voice still steady. "You asked for this, Jonny. You deserve this as much as Adam does."

These words seemed to make no impact at all, and Booth took a step forward. He moved his hand backwards, and he gripped the back of his wooden chair.

And all of a sudden Marissa was moving. She knew what Booth was doing. She could see the scene playing out; Booth violently swinging the heavy chair, while Alex was unarmed. _'But I'm not,'_she thought fiercely, pulling what Seth had given her earlier from the waistband of her jeans. "Freeze!" she screamed, bursting through the door.

"What the hell!" yelled Booth, dropping the chair and jumping back. "Who are you- is that a fucking gun?"

"It's a BB gun, actually," said Marissa, her voice calm and cold, its eerie cadence surprising even herself. "But don't relax too much; if I shoot enough of these bullets at you, you'll still need a good amount of medical attention. Now get down on the floor."

It might have worked. If Marissa had given the order one minute sooner, Booth never would have seen the blue and red flashing lights coming in his open front door and bathing his hallway in light. He never would have heard the sirens. And he never would have become so angry and scared that he bolted forward, shocking Marissa so badly she dropped the gun. And he never would have picked it up.

The last thing Marissa saw was the barrel pointed straight at her. The last thing she heard was Alex's scream. And then it all went black.


	11. Surprise

So! This is the final chapter… Exciting, yes? It was quite fun to write, I enjoyed tying all the little pieces together. I hope you enjoy reading it! And reviewing! Thanks for sticking with this story, it's been fun.

"I fully understand your concern," said the nurse, who was standing in front of the door with a kind but firm expression. "But I assure you, Miss Cooper just needs to rest."

Alex fumed silently for a moment. Who was this testy looking woman with dyed red hair to know what Marissa needed? "I know perfectly well Marissa's medical situation," she said through gritted teeth. "I still want to see her. Now." She demonstrated her best 'give-me-what-I-want' glare.

The nurse sighed. "Fine, fine," she conceded, moving aside. "But if the doctor happens by, _I'm_ not going to be the one explaining this to him." She stalked off, mumbling about pushy teenagers.

Alex pushed through the door, and her gaze immediately fell on Marissa, lying in between the starchy white hospital sheets. Her shoulders were covered with a pale green gown, and her light brown hair was messy, pieces of it spread across her pillow. Her face was very pale, and her eyes were closed. There was a small bandage taped to her left temple. "Oh, Marissa," sighed Alex softly.

Green-blue eyes flashed open, and Marissa sat up. "Alex!" she squealed. "Oh, I thought you were the nurse again, I just didn't want to answer any more annoying questions!" A wide, toothy grin adorned her face. "How'd you get in here, I thought they weren't letting me see anyone?"

Alex crossed the room in three quick strides. "Do you really need me to answer that?" She sat on the bed, smiling cheekily.

Marissa rolled her eyes. "I hope you didn't hurt that poor woman," she said. "They'll never let you back in here to see me."

Alex felt her smile fade a bit. "You're not going to be in here that long, are you?" she asked. "I thought you were pretty much all healed, the bullet only grazed your temple." Her gaze focused on the bandage. "There are no complications, right?"

"No, no, nothing too serious," said Marissa quickly. "I mean, I have a small concussion, but with some rest I should be absolutely fine." Then she sighed. "It's just... well, it's kind of my mom."

Alex groaned. She should have known. "Ugh, how did she find out? And why does she want you to stay in the hospital? I mean, even the doctors say you'll be okay if you take it easy."

"Seth told Sandy, who most likely told Kirsten, grapevine, yadda yadda yadda," Marissa shorthanded, making a circular motion with her hand. "So now my mom knows. And, although sometimes it doesn't seem like it, my mom is supremely protective of me." She shrugged. "I mean, it's not that bad. Just a bit annoying that I have to stay in bed."

"You'll miss Summer's party, you know," Alex pointed out. "And that means even though you're already in the hospital, there's a chance when you get out she'll just put you right back in."

Marissa snickered. "I guess that's a chance I'll have to take. It sucks to miss it, though, I've been planning that party for a month." Then she leaned forward. "Anyway, I've been completely cut off here, the only information I'm getting is incomplete texts from Seth. What's happening with Jonny and Adam?"

Alex felt a smug grin slide across her face. "Oh yes. This'll cheer you up." She launched into the explanation of what had happened after Marissa had blacked out. The police had showed up, and seeing the unmoving girl on the floor, and the gun in the hand of the man they were there to arrest, they had been a bit rough with him. This had pissed him off even more, so he had fought back as they handcuffed him. Last Alex had heard, they were considering upping his sentence by six months for resisting arrest.

As for Adam, everything had unfolded practically perfectly. Once they received the audio file with Booth's confession, charging Adam was simple. Since he was already in jail, he was simply having time racked onto his sentence. He had not requested a trial. Thanks to the recorded conversation between Booth and Alex, there was really no way out for him anyway.

After Alex finished explaining, Marissa sat back in her bed, smiling. "You know, no one should mess with us. We kind of kick ass."

Alex smiled back. "Yeah, when we're not being shot by our own BB guns."

"Oh, shut up," Marissa retorted, shoving Alex's shoulder playfully. The momentary contact sent a slight shiver down Alex's arm, a hint of embarrassed awkwardness returned to her. She couldn't help remembering that before this conversation, the last words she had said to Marissa had been three very important ones.

Marissa, who had been watching silently, bit her lip. Then she smiled softly. "Remembering something, perhaps?"

Alex hoped very much that she wasn't blushing. "How do you always know what I'm thinking?" she couldn't help asking.

The tall brunette shrugged, still smiling. "I don't know, really. I've just found that I can look at you and sort of read your expression." Her voice was very quiet. Alex felt a distinct lump in her throat. She prepared to speak, with a little difficulty.

"Yeah?"

Marissa's eyes looked very blue in the florescent light. She moved forward, and took Alex's hand. "Yeah," she said. "Listen, I've been sitting in this room for three hours, so I've had a lot of time to think. Mostly about you." She took a deep breath. "And what you said this morning. Alex, I-"

Suddenly the door burst open, revealing a breathless and red-faced Summer and Seth. "Coop!"

Alex threw up her hands and glared, exasperated at the pair of them. "Seriously? Right now? You guys have the worst timing of anyone, ever in world." She fumed silently. She was sure Marissa had been about to make a decision. But which one? _Ugh._

"Well, sorry," said Summer hurriedly, closing the door securely behind her. "But we had to come." She glared at Marissa. "No way are you missing my party, Coop."

Marissa looked puzzled. "But it's in like, an hour. And I'm being confined to the hospital."

"Pfft," snorted Seth, rolling his eyes. "We got this. The only reason you're still here is Julie Cooper, who, last time I checked, is not a medical doctor. Therefore, we are sneaking you out."

Momentarily distracted from her annoyance, Alex cocked her head at Seth. "Sneaking her out? And how exactly are you planning on doing that?" She stared him in the eyes in mock concern. "You know you don't _really_ have super powers, right?"

"That's what you think," countered Seth, pointing a finger at Alex before striding to the bed where Marissa was sitting. He was wearing a backpack, which he promptly took off and unzipped, producing a pair of pants and a tee shirt. "Here, put these on."

Meanwhile, Summer was peering out the blinds on the door. "Yeah, and hurry up, we have a window of about five minutes before those people at the front desk start to wonder why their coffee is taking so long."

"Come on, Alex," said Seth, grabbing her by the arm. "We're on hallway-watching duty." He walked past Summer and opened the door. "We stand out here and if we see any nurses coming to check on Marissa, we stall." He closed the door behind them.

Alex frowned at him. "Stall until what? Marissa and Summer climb out the window?"

Seth gave her a pointed look.

"Oh god."

Seven minutes later, sitting in the back of Summer's car, Alex was still dumbfounded. "I just cannot believe that worked," she said, shaking her head.

Marissa, who was sitting next to her, smirked. "Yep, escape number two from the hospital; success."

Alex looked at her. "You've done this before?"

Seth turned around to face the occupants of the back seat. "Yeah, but trust me, last time had way better outfits." He was swiftly punched in the arm. "Hey, concentrate on driving, woman!" Another punch. "Ah, should've seen that coming."

Arriving at Summer's house, the sun had already begun to set. The four teenagers got out of the car, with Summer squealing excitedly. "This is so cool! My party is in like fifteen minutes!" She wheeled around to face Seth, Marissa and Alex. "Okay, I'm going to go change my shoes. You guys get ready to surprise me!"

Seth watched as his girlfriend skip up to the door and enter the house. "One day, I'm going to teach her what the word 'surprise' means."

Alex smirked. "While you're at it, you should introduce the concept of _not_ having to change shoes fifteen times a day."

"Yeah, like that's ever going to happen," laughed Marissa. She looked at Seth. "So, have you got your present all ready? You know, the extremely odd one."

Seth snapped his fingers. "Actually, I could use some help with that. It's next to the kitchen, in one of Summer's spare rooms, and it took a half hour for me to get there by myself. Can you guys lend a hand?"

Alex rolled her eyes. She turned to Marissa. "I'll get this one, you just got out of the hospital with a concussion. Too much heavy lifting's probably not a good idea."

Marissa smiled. "Thanks, Alex."

Alex's stomach flipped, and she grinned back. "Yeah, of course."

Seth led her into the house and past the kitchen. Entering the spare room, he smiled cheekily at her. "Very chivalrous of you, back there."

Alex looked back at him. "What was?"

Opening a closet, Seth gave her a wink, and put on a high pitched voice. "_Oh don't worry Marissa, I'll save you from the big, bad concussion!"_ He reached into the closet and pulled on a very tall, flat, rectangular package, wrapped in sparkly purple paper. He managed to drag it all the way out, and stood looking at it, like an adversary. "I mean, if offering to help me carry this thing isn't a declaration of undying love, I don't know what is."

Alex gaped at the thing. "You know, I might have to agree with you on that. What _is_ this, exactly?"

"It's a surprise," Seth said, in a mock mysterious voice. He grabbed one corner of the gigantic gift, then raised an eyebrow at Alex. "So, you're agreeing with me, huh? Undying love?"

Alex grabbed another corner. "I don't know if I'd be quite as dramatic."

Seth was quiet for a moment, as they manoeuvred the package out of the room. "You know, I've been meaning to talk to you about this," he said finally. "I mean, I guess you sort of figured that me and Summer don't want you and Marissa together. What with all the history, and Ryan basically being my brother and everything."

Turning a corner in the hallway, Alex swallowed cautiously. "Well, yeah, I did sort of figure. It's also kind of, well, I can't help thinking of when I was dating her and you guys put her in a tent with Ryan overnight."

The portion of Seth's face she could see around the bulky gift turned slightly red. "Yeah, sorry about that," he said, sounding genuinely sorry. "I guess we just weren't ready to come to terms with the fact that she wasn't with him. He was so broken up over Lindsay, and it seemed like the right thing to do. Looking back on it, we may have pushed things a little too far. For both of them. Sometimes I can tell Ryan just hasn't been right since Lindsay left, and as for Marissa..." He stopped speaking for a moment. They were standing in front of the kitchen, and Seth moved his head so he could look at Alex face to face. "I honestly think Marissa's been in love with you for two years."

Alex was silent for a moment, a tinge of relief calming her stomach. "I certainly hope so," she said quietly. "So you're saying its okay with you? I mean, if me and her can make this work?"

Seth smiled at her. "I know it would make both of you really happy, and you both deserve it. So yes, of course." He began to push the present into the kitchen so they could get it out the back door, and then stopped for a moment, looking back at Alex. "Also, it would be incredibly hot, and I am also all for that. You can send me any pictures, or videos, or-"

Alex knocked the package gently so it pushed Seth into a wall. "In your dreams," she answered, rolling her eyes. "C'mon, let's get this thing outside."

Between the two of them, they gingerly manoeuvred the large gift through the kitchen (with Seth's end dragging a bit on the floor) and through the back door into the yard. Stepping out into the evening, Alex noticed that the party planners had finally managed to pull everything together. The yard was lit with tall lamps emanating yellow light, the pool was decorated with light pink Christmas lights, and streamers and banners were draped tastefully across the back fence. Lastly, there was a large pedestal overlooking the pool, presumably for Summer to stand on to make her birthday speech.

"The pedestal wasn't my idea," came a voice from behind them. Alex turned around to see Marissa there, leaning against the door frame and smiling. "Summer insisted on it. She told me it was for aesthetic purposes, but I think it more so she could be taller than all her guests when she addresses them."

Seth laughed. "It would make sense. How tall is that thing, three feet?"

Marissa shrugged, still smiling. "I dunno. It's not as tall as your gigantic frame, though, at least there's that."

Alex turned to Seth, raising an eyebrow. "Gigantic frame? You got Summer a gigantic frame."

Seth grinned, grabbing his purple wrapped present and dragging it behind a streamer adorned tree. "You can laugh now," he said confidently. "But I shall be laughing later. Well, less laughing than being drowned in praise and compliments."

"At least he's got the drowning part right," mumbled Marissa to Alex.

The first two hours described pretty much what Alex assumed every Newport party consisted of. After Summer came downstairs, and a few miscellaneous guests had arrived, her father showed up in the yard, carrying a wrapped gift, which turned out to be keys to a brand new Mercedes. Dr. Roberts left the party quickly, announcing he was off to a fund raising event and warning his daughter to keep everything under control. At this point, an additional twenty guests arrived, as did copious amounts of alcohol.

Summer was having a blast, clearly enjoying being the centre of attention for the night. She rotated happily through talking to her guests, the Lemon Drop Martini in her hand being repeatedly refilled by Seth, who hovered around the music and drinks table with the hired D.J, chatting about various underground music scenes and requesting certain songs that he felt would go with the atmosphere.

Alex had started the evening helping out, carrying people's presents out from the house and placing them on the porch in a neat pile. With more and more arrivals, she had felt distinctly awkward, like she didn't belong. She knew Ryan wasn't supposed to show up til much later (he was working late, she had checked with Seth), but she still couldn't quite relax. At least she couldn't until she was pulled aside an hour into the party by Marissa, and handed a beer.

"Come with me," the brunette had said, smiling. Together, they had approached the pool, discarded their shoes and socks, rolled up their jeans, and sat with their feet dangling in the water. "Isn't this better than sulking on the porch?"

Alex took a sip of beer, and smiled back. "Maybe a little bit."

Time passed, and soon it was time for Summer's birthday speech. The tiny brunette scaled the pedestal (which was impressive considering the amount of martinis she had ingested) and gave the yard a jaunty wave. "Thank you, everyone," she exclaimed, "For the amazing surprise party!"

A voice called out from the crowd. "You invited me!" Everyone laughed.

Summer smiled, and shrugged. "Even so, I can honestly say this has been the best surprise party I've ever had. At my last one I got stung by a bee and had to go to the hospital." More laughter. "Anyway, I just want to say thanks again, especially for all the great presents."

"Great presents?" exclaimed Seth suddenly, standing up from his seat next to the D.J with an air of grandeur. "But you have yet to see the greatest present of all, from your loving boyfriend." He motioned toward Alex and Marissa. "Ladies, if you would help me out with this, that would be great. I need my hands to gesture luxuriously."

Rolling their eyes, the two of them stood up and grabbed either side of the gift, dragging it the few feet up to the pedestal. Summer's eyes were just about popping out of her head, staring at the massive present. "Oh my god, Seth!" she squealed.

Marissa looked up at her friend, a slight warning look on her face. "Don't get too excited there, Sum," she remarked mildly.

Summer's eyes narrowed, and she looked sharply at Seth. "This better not be a giant X-men poster, Cohen."

But Seth grinned, and grabbed onto the paper at the top left corner of the package. "Oh, ye of little faith," he said, and pulled diagonally right, removing the front of the paper.

Summer's mouth dropped, and then pulled into an amazed smile. "Oh, Cohen," she sighed happily.

Alex and Marissa exchanged surprised looks, and then both hopped onto the pedestal to get a look at whatever-it-was. When Alex saw, she shook her head incredulously and grinned at Seth. "You big old nerdy romantic."

As Marissa had said, Seth really had bought a gigantic frame, but he had put something in it. A lifesize animated drawing of Seth and Summer (both in superhero costumes) were gazing at each other, and holding hands. In simple cursive, the words '_I Love You'_ were written above their heads.

"Little Miss Vixen and the Ironist," said Marissa. Alex looked at her questioningly, and she smiled. "Seth's superhero names for himself and Summer. He drew them here."

"I cannot believe you got me something so romantic!" cut in Summer, back to squealing. She jumped down from the pedestal into Seth's arms. "You're the best nerdy boyfriend ever."

Seth grinned. "That's me." He kissed her, and everyone cheered.

Watching them, Alex smiled. "They're so perfect for each other," she said, a little bit sadly. How could she ever have that? How could someone ever love her that much?

And then she felt a warm hand slip into hers. "Yes," said Marissa's voice. "We are."

Alex turned her head, looking amazed into Marissa's eyes. "Really?" she asked quietly. Her heartbeat seemed to be far too loud.

Marissa nodded, her jaw set, and her eyes blazing. She took Alex's other hand, so they were facing each other. "I think I've been trying to tell you this for a very long time," she said in a calm, steady voice. "Maybe even before I knew what I was feeling. But," she bit her lip. "What you said this morning... Me too."

Alex's brain made the connection slowly. "You mean-"

Marissa nodded again, smiling now. "I do. I-" she paused, and then smiled even wider. "I choose you. I love you. I love you."

Alex couldn't really remember leaning in, or closing her eyes, but all of a sudden she was kissing Marissa with a fierce, ecstatic passion. She tried to convey every emotion she was feeling into it; trying to show the girl she was in love with exactly how amazing she was with only a kiss. And then she just couldn't concentrate anymore, and she gave in to the jumble of electric impulses surging through her body. Nothing could make her ever let go...

"I suppose this means you've made your decision," said a too-familiar voice.

Well, except that.

Pulling away very quickly, Alex turned her gaze hurriedly to Ryan, who was standing at the foot of the pedestal. Before he could speak again, she held up a hand. "Listen, Ryan-"

"No, you listen, please-"

"-I'm serious, I know why you're here-"

"Alex, hold on-"

"-And I know you're really angry-"

"Alex, I'm not angry!"

"-And," Alex paused, Ryan's last words hitting her. "Wait, what?"

She felt Marissa step forward, arms crossed. "Yeah, what?" she asked, frowning.

Ryan looked at Marissa, his pale blue eyes sad, but very sincere. "I want to apologize." Seeing the tall brunette double take, he smiled weakly. "Yeah, you heard me. I want to apologize." He took a deep breath. "I've been much less than a good boyfriend. I've been distant and selfish, and I haven't told you why. And I never talk to you when I should. For all that and more, I am really sorry."

Marissa still looked a bit shellshocked. "I-"

But Ryan held up a hand. "No, I want to finish." He turned his gaze to Alex. "I think you deserve an apology too, Alex."

Alex felt her eyes widen. "You sure you got the right girl, here?"

He smiled again. "Yes, I'm sure. I'm also pretty positive that I did the wrong thing two years ago. I know I told you time and time again that I wasn't moving in on your girl. But I was." His eyes flicked to Marissa, and then back to Alex. "The truth is, I was lonely, and I was hurt. And I thought that if I got back with my old girlfriend, the girl who first taught me I could have a good life... I thought that would fix everything. But it didn't. And I'm sorry for that." He stepped back, and looked at both girls. "Now I'm going to make things right."

Marissa spoke up, sounding just as shocked as Alex felt. "Ryan... Where is all of this coming from?"

The sandy haired young man closed his eyes for a moment. "I suppose it all started when I saw you about to kiss her. It just sort of- woke me up. I felt like 'My god, she's going to leave me.' And then I wondered why I wasn't more devastated." He looked quickly up at Marissa. "I mean, of course I was devastated, but just... not as much as I should have been. And then I sort of knew that for the past two years, we've been kidding ourselves. You've been pining after someone who never should have left." He glanced at Alex. Then he took something out of his pocket. "And I've been too afraid to go after someone who did."

Marissa squinted down at his hand. "What is that?"

"It's a plane ticket." He gave a small smile. "To Chicago."

Briefly, Alex saw something like anger pass across Marissa's face. And then it was gone, and all she could see was acceptance. Marissa nodded. "Go get her."

The former lovers exchanged a small smile. "Good luck," said Ryan sincerely, before he turned around to face a bewildered Seth and Summer. "Seth, tell Sandy and Kirsten I'll call as soon as I can. Summer... Happy Birthday. Sorry I couldn't stay longer. But there's something I have to do." And then he was gone, his broad back disappearing through the kitchen's sliding door.

For a moment, the back yard was in complete silence. And then a boy with dark hair and torn jeans stepped forward, looking at Marissa. "Hey, Cooper?"

Marissa turned her head to face him. "Uh, yeah?"

The boy grinned. "Can you kiss that blonde girl again?"

Laughter erupted from the silent yard, and people moved toward Seth and Summer, to offer more birthday tidings, or to take a look at the magnificently drawn birthday portrait. And Marissa turned toward Alex, smiling softly. "We did it, you know. We solved your kidnapping, we nailed Booth and Adam. We got Ryan's blessing." She laughed lightly, her green-blue eyes twinkling in the soft lights of the pool. "Does it get any better than this?"

Alex grinned back, taking Marissa's hands once again. "You know, I think it does." And she kissed her newly recovered girlfriend, this time vowing that absolutely nothing would ever interrupt her.


End file.
